The many faces of religion

[Deleted]

[Deleted]

Just another label Arin. Who really cares as long as the heart is open and the mind is open to respect other's beliefs? The main message is basically the same but a lot of times the other little things have been picked apart in the name of justifying actions, but the main message is that good is stronger than evil and that love is stronger than hate. It's a little deeper than that but that is about the simplest way that I can put it. We should love and accept one another instead of hate and reject one another because we are all tied together in ways that are unimaginable to most people. I'm kind of like you, standing out there on my own.

[Deleted]

Even though we may strongly disagree on these things, the high stakes of living transgender trumps the differences, and we try, mostly successfully, not to step on anyone's toes.

And I love that about this place.


And let's dance the night away.
Dream on...sail the higher planes....

[Deleted]

May 8, 2015 6:02:34 GMT 8 Trinity said:

Even though we may strongly disagree on these things, the high stakes of living transgender trumps the differences, and we try, mostly successfully, not to step on anyone's toes.

And I love that about this place.


And let's dance the night away.
Dream on...sail the higher planes....

Hell Trinity. Stepping on toes, having disagreements, having heated debates, unknowingly hurting other's feelings and then apologizing for it and when yours get hurt accepting the apology and in the end we are all friends and love one another unconditionally as brothers and sisters. Not in a religious sense but just a human sense and we can go on and still have discussions, debates and heated conversations and still love and respect one another. To me that is the way it's supposed to be. We don't have to agree on anything. But loving one another and respecting one another as fellow human beings and brothers and sisters unconditionally whether or not we agree on religion, beliefs, politics and even the whole concept of transgenderism, well that is kind of special.

[Deleted]

May 8, 2015 6:02:34 GMT 8 Trinity said:

Even though we may strongly disagree on these things, the high stakes of living transgender trumps the differences, and we try, mostly successfully, not to step on anyone's toes.

And I love that about this place.


And let's dance the night away.
Dream on...sail the higher planes....

There is an Absolute Truth that underlies all things. However we each choose to observe, interpret and understand it doesn't change that Truth. That's one of the biggest things most orthodox or exoteric religions fail to (or refuse to) understand. We're all tapping into the same source and channeling it according to how it makes sense to and resonates with us. We all have our own unique experiences and perspectives, and that makes humanity more special than we give it credit for. To exist in uniform ideology, spirituality and philosophy would make us no different than robots. Agreeing to disagree is necessary for peace and community.

[Deleted]

:-)

Jump the planes find the light tunnels

It's indescribable what's up there...



Been there when I was heavy into psychic occultism and astral travel.

Can get scary though, not in the higher ones, the third heaven, but below that it's kinda creepy.

Straight up as fast as you can, you,'ll hear a roaring in your ears, feel the movement, faster than light it feels like then boom, your there, past the one eye spirits that watch, up, until you find a place where every cell in your very real spirit body is filled with pure joy.

And if you ever see the Christ, it is life changing, I have seen Him once face to face, thirty years ago.

The truth is out there.

And I respect everyone on this board, no matter what they believe.

There is no black majik here, and god help anyone that tries it.

Blessings

Trinity

[Deleted]

May 8, 2015 11:16:30 GMT 8 @illuminess said:

May 8, 2015 6:02:34 GMT 8 Trinity said:

Even though we may strongly disagree on these things, the high stakes of living transgender trumps the differences, and we try, mostly successfully, not to step on anyone's toes.

And I love that about this place.


And let's dance the night away.
Dream on...sail the higher planes....

There is an Absolute Truth that underlies all things. However we each choose to observe, interpret and understand it doesn't change that Truth. That's one of the biggest things most orthodox or exoteric religions fail to (or refuse to) understand. We're all tapping into the same source and channeling it according to how it makes sense to and resonates with us. We all have our own unique experiences and perspectives, and that makes humanity more special than we give it credit for. To exist in uniform ideology, spirituality and philosophy would make us no different than robots. Agreeing to disagree is necessary for peace and community.

This is just my experience and opinion but that absolute one truth to me is the Source or The Creator, Perfect Divine Love or God or Whatever. The great big unity and so on. But to me our "truths" are according to our experiences. My truths are different than yours and both of ours are different than Trinity's and so on. We are all on our own paths trying to find that Special Enlightenment. To me there is no right or wrong religions because it is what we need deep down inside to light the spark of enlightenment or understanding. Religions can be perverted by the human mind when you add in the human aspects of arrogance, pride, envy, lust and so on. Every religion usually starts out as a pure insight by one or several enlightened individuals and then the human element and it will pervert it every time and then it becomes stale or a means of control or justification for hate and so on. Eventually that will change though but it will never be through force or anger but enlightenment on a scale that the world can't even perceive. Hell there may be a global catastrophe or event that pushes us toward understanding. But we just aren't there now. And it may take the end of the world and losing our physical bodies on a global scale in unison to realize this. But in the scheme of things we are not physically alive but for extremely short times, the blink of an eye in astronomical timelines. So where do we spend most of the time. The time before we became incarnate and the time after we cease to be incarnate? I do believe in reincarnation but that is one of my truths that will lead me eventually to the absolute truth.

You make a lot of sense Arin. But we can disagree and still be friends. Fighting over religion kind of defeats the purpose of Divinity. My perceptions of The Creator or God or the One come solely from my life experience. Right or wrong, it only matters that those perceptions are right for me and what I need. What's right for me is solely what I need. What's right for me isn't right for everyone or anyone else. It is extremely personal as it should be. Just like being trans and how we should focus on the similarities more than the differences, the same with Spirituality when it comes to religion. It should be focused more on the similarities between them all instead of the differences.

Disclaimer: this is just my opinions and personal beliefs of the subject.

[Deleted]

May 9, 2015 2:53:11 GMT 8 @jamie said:

May 8, 2015 11:16:30 GMT 8 @illuminess said:

There is an Absolute Truth that underlies all things. However we each choose to observe, interpret and understand it doesn't change that Truth. That's one of the biggest things most orthodox or exoteric religions fail to (or refuse to) understand. We're all tapping into the same source and channeling it according to how it makes sense to and resonates with us. We all have our own unique experiences and perspectives, and that makes humanity more special than we give it credit for. To exist in uniform ideology, spirituality and philosophy would make us no different than robots. Agreeing to disagree is necessary for peace and community.

This is just my experience and opinion but that absolute one truth to me is the Source or The Creator, Perfect Divine Love or God or Whatever. The great big unity and so on. But to me our "truths" are according to our experiences. My truths are different than yours and both of ours are different than Trinity's and so on. We are all on our own paths trying to find that Special Enlightenment. To me there is no right or wrong religions because it is what we need deep down inside to light the spark of enlightenment or understanding.

And it can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be as long as it fulfills the purpose. My brain has always needed complexity to feel satisfied which is why I found my way into occult philosophy. That's all it is: spiritual philosophy and scientific thinking combined. Lots of different sects might use the word "occult" to describe themselves, but they probably don't really understand what the word even means or why it was ever associated with esoteric philosophy in the first place. But yes, God is at the center of it. However you want to refer to that "source", it is what it is: the immutable truth.

Religions can be perverted by the human mind when you add in the human aspects of arrogance, pride, envy, lust and so on. Every religion usually starts out as a pure insight by one or several enlightened individuals and then the human element and it will pervert it every time and then it becomes stale or a means of control or justification for hate and so on.

Christianity has gone through so many stages both positive and negative. It once finally found a place of virtue when Gnosticism emerged, but that was soon swept away by the iron hand of Constantine who made his version of patriarchal Christianity the standard. That attitude pretty much remained. People will always "make their own Christianity" as comedian Doug Stanhope said, and that's really how it should be. Spirituality is supposed to be a personal and private matter, not flaunted or mandated. We should only share the seeds of our joy, not try to make someone swallow the fruit whole.

Eventually that will change though but it will never be through force or anger but enlightenment on a scale that the world can't even perceive. Hell there may be a global catastrophe or event that pushes us toward understanding. But we just aren't there now. And it may take the end of the world and losing our physical bodies on a global scale in unison to realize this.

One of the Biblical metaphors is that the battle of Armageddon will be fought in the air. Many take that literally, but it isn't at all literal. Air represents communication. The word apocalypse has come to mean something catastrophic, but that isn't correct. It comes from the Greek apokaluptein — apo (un) + kaluptein (cover) — which means "to uncover". So, the "end time" battle is about consciousness; about knowledge and information; about the world have a veil lifted from its eyes. What has been occulted now must be revealed in order for humanity to evolve from darkness.

But in the scheme of things we are not physically alive but for extremely short times, the blink of an eye in astronomical timelines. So where do we spend most of the time. The time before we became incarnate and the time after we cease to be incarnate? I do believe in reincarnation but that is one of my truths that will lead me eventually to the absolute truth.

I believe in reincarnation, as well. We are essentially shards of the Whole; droplets of an infinite ocean. We come in and out of incarnation to experience various aspects of Ourself, to evolve Ourself. You can see who is new and who has been here several times already. New incarnations are often riskier, more careless, more hedonistic, and easily bored with or repelled by deeper truths. Older incarnations are calmer, more cautious, more concerned with spiritual and philosophical matters, and less active in modern affairs.

You make a lot of sense Arin. But we can disagree and still be friends. Fighting over religion kind of defeats the purpose of Divinity. My perceptions of The Creator or God or the One come solely from my life experience. Right or wrong, it only matters that those perceptions are right for me and what I need. What's right for me is solely what I need. What's right for me isn't right for everyone or anyone else. It is extremely personal as it should be. Just like being trans and how we should focus on the similarities more than the differences, the same with Spirituality when it comes to religion. It should be focused more on the similarities between them all instead of the differences.

Right, you are.

[Deleted]

May 9, 2015 4:55:13 GMT 8 @illuminess said:

May 9, 2015 2:53:11 GMT 8 @jamie said:

This is just my experience and opinion but that absolute one truth to me is the Source or The Creator, Perfect Divine Love or God or Whatever. The great big unity and so on. But to me our "truths" are according to our experiences. My truths are different than yours and both of ours are different than Trinity's and so on. We are all on our own paths trying to find that Special Enlightenment. To me there is no right or wrong religions because it is what we need deep down inside to light the spark of enlightenment or understanding.

And it can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be as long as it fulfills the purpose. My brain has always needed complexity to feel satisfied which is why I found my way into occult philosophy. That's all it is: spiritual philosophy and scientific thinking combined. Lots of different sects might use the word "occult" to describe themselves, but they probably don't really understand what the word even means or why it was ever associated with esoteric philosophy in the first place. But yes, God is at the center of it. However you want to refer to that "source", it is what it is: the immutable truth.

Religions can be perverted by the human mind when you add in the human aspects of arrogance, pride, envy, lust and so on. Every religion usually starts out as a pure insight by one or several enlightened individuals and then the human element and it will pervert it every time and then it becomes stale or a means of control or justification for hate and so on.

Christianity has gone through so many stages both positive and negative. It once finally found a place of virtue when Gnosticism emerged, but that was soon swept away by the iron hand of Constantine who made his version of patriarchal Christianity the standard. That attitude pretty much remained. People will always "make their own Christianity" as comedian Doug Stanhope said, and that's really how it should be. Spirituality is supposed to be a personal and private matter, not flaunted or mandated. We should only share the seeds of our joy, not try to make someone swallow the fruit whole.

Eventually that will change though but it will never be through force or anger but enlightenment on a scale that the world can't even perceive. Hell there may be a global catastrophe or event that pushes us toward understanding. But we just aren't there now. And it may take the end of the world and losing our physical bodies on a global scale in unison to realize this.

One of the Biblical metaphors is that the battle of Armageddon will be fought in the air. Many take that literally, but it isn't at all literal. Air represents communication. The word apocalypse has come to mean something catastrophic, but that isn't correct. It comes from the Greek apokaluptein — apo (un) + kaluptein (cover) — which means "to uncover". So, the "end time" battle is about consciousness; about knowledge and information; about the world have a veil lifted from its eyes. What has been occulted now must be revealed in order for humanity to evolve from darkness.

But in the scheme of things we are not physically alive but for extremely short times, the blink of an eye in astronomical timelines. So where do we spend most of the time. The time before we became incarnate and the time after we cease to be incarnate? I do believe in reincarnation but that is one of my truths that will lead me eventually to the absolute truth.

I believe in reincarnation, as well. We are essentially shards of the Whole; droplets of an infinite ocean. We come in and out of incarnation to experience various aspects of Ourself, to evolve Ourself. You can see who is new and who has been here several times already. New incarnations are often riskier, more careless, more hedonistic, and easily bored with or repelled by deeper truths. Older incarnations are calmer, more cautious, more concerned with spiritual and philosophical matters, and less active in modern affairs.

You make a lot of sense Arin. But we can disagree and still be friends. Fighting over religion kind of defeats the purpose of Divinity. My perceptions of The Creator or God or the One come solely from my life experience. Right or wrong, it only matters that those perceptions are right for me and what I need. What's right for me is solely what I need. What's right for me isn't right for everyone or anyone else. It is extremely personal as it should be. Just like being trans and how we should focus on the similarities more than the differences, the same with Spirituality when it comes to religion. It should be focused more on the similarities between them all instead of the differences.

Right, you are.

I can't disagree with anything you said Arin. I really think it is so simple that we can't even grasp the simplicity of it. So we make it way more complex that it really should be. I tend to look at history, science and Spirituality. Some history can back up some of the mythes and stories in ancient texts. I mean even in the US we had a hellacious flood from an inland sea and what is left of that sea is the Great Salt Lake. So the story of Noah is possible but rather than a global scale I think the flood was more of a world even effecting the world in which they lived. We all have our own little worlds we belong to but the world is a combination of a group of people sharing the same customs, the globe which we really know as the earth is actually global. So the Deadsea is possibly remenants of the inland sea that may have burst a natural dam and caused the whole story of Noah. The Dead Sea with ultra high concetrations of salt is eerily close to the Great Salt Lake. As a matter of fact the whole state of Nevada is called the great basin. And some of the weathering seems to support this theory. But definately it spanned the whole way from Saltlake city over to the Nevada line. Also if you look at the State of California on Google Maps, the Valley in the middle seems to be awfully flat and sort of a basin. When you look toward SF Bay you can see what is under water what looks like the rememenants of water rushing out kind of like the Smake Valley in Idaho. That could have been fresh water though seeing how ther salt content isn't near as high as the salt flats in Utah. So with that Glaciers could have gouged that valley along with plate techtonics and and earthquake could have burst a natural damn in the SF Bay Area. So historically there have been many great floods. What caused them? Could be extreme rains, Could be volcanoes and Earhtquakes or just gelogical pressures that released the water.

But seriously though. Even with the bible, the whold thing and this is just my opinion it is more about a Spiritual shift in understanding and enlightenment. I mean the different ages can be unified with the stories of Abraham, Moses and Christ. I do believe that Crist will return but it won't be a man named Jeshua. It will be someone that you have to have faith in their inner knowldge. Could be male or female. And the Antichrist could be a person, government, corporation, a group of people that are uber powerful and rich AKA the Illuminati even though that is conspiracy theory. But one thing for sure the Antichrist will have a totally opposite viewpoint than Christ. To me that will mean that the Antichrist will be embeded in material thinking, material riches and so on. SO when Christ returns or the Entity that represents the Good and Spiritual Enlightenment will not be rich, bound in material posessions and so on. I mean 70 someodd short years give or take out of billions according to astronomy and maybe ever trillions if not infinity? What would you choose? Again History and the Thibetan Book of the Dead speaks of drinking from the River of Forgetfulness before we are reincarnated. Why? Maybe because we have to make a blind choice to either live Spritually or Materially.

Yeah the Occult has a bad rap. Cults on the other hand when someone follows someone else no matter how crazy the ideology, but we can call any religion a Cult though. When we are children, we are innocent. We can have and even see imaginary friends. During times of extreme distress we may even visualize Jesus or a guide or a guardian angel or whatever you are conditioned with to provide comfort. But the older we get, the more we fall into the material world and then things like that seem impossible.

But there is nothing wrong with Occultism or Mysticism. But cults are sort of manipulation of people's beliefs. Usually by one Charasmatic individual or group. I have actually fought in a bookstore with a catholic preist. Verbally of course. All because he couln't live and let live and had to say something about the section I was in. In his words. "The devils section." He said he would pray for me and I told him that I would pray for him. That really pissed him off.

[Deleted]

May 11, 2015 0:11:50 GMT 8 @jamie said:

Yeah the Occult has a bad rap. Cults on the other hand when someone follows someone else no matter how crazy the ideology, but we can call any religion a Cult though. When we are children, we are innocent. We can have and even see imaginary friends. During times of extreme distress we may even visualize Jesus or a guide or a guardian angel or whatever you are conditioned with to provide comfort. But the older we get, the more we fall into the material world and then things like that seem impossible.

But there is nothing wrong with Occultism or Mysticism. But cults are sort of manipulation of people's beliefs. Usually by one Charasmatic individual or group. I have actually fought in a bookstore with a catholic preist. Verbally of course. All because he couln't live and let live and had to say something about the section I was in. In his words. "The devils section." He said he would pray for me and I told him that I would pray for him. That really pissed him off.

The fact that the word "cult" is within "occult" really messes things up. People often connect the two as being mutually exclusive, but neither have any relation to each other etymologically. Occult comes from the Latin occulere which means "conceal" while cult comes from the Latin colere + cultus which means "worship". So, by the etymological definition any spiritual sect is a cult, but the word has been more frequently associated with isolated groups with suspicious beliefs and motives.

If only the study of the origins of words was a requirement in grade school. We would be far more intelligent and less likely to blindly cling onto ideas and beliefs, because it would be ingrained in us to discover deeper meaning.

Another word we never think to investigate is the word government which also has roots in Latin as it comes from the words gubernare which means "to manage or control" and mens which means "mind". Therefore, "mind control". Surprise, surprise.

[Deleted]

May 11, 2015 2:55:35 GMT 8 @illuminess said:

May 11, 2015 0:11:50 GMT 8 @jamie said:

Yeah the Occult has a bad rap. Cults on the other hand when someone follows someone else no matter how crazy the ideology, but we can call any religion a Cult though. When we are children, we are innocent. We can have and even see imaginary friends. During times of extreme distress we may even visualize Jesus or a guide or a guardian angel or whatever you are conditioned with to provide comfort. But the older we get, the more we fall into the material world and then things like that seem impossible.

But there is nothing wrong with Occultism or Mysticism. But cults are sort of manipulation of people's beliefs. Usually by one Charasmatic individual or group. I have actually fought in a bookstore with a catholic preist. Verbally of course. All because he couln't live and let live and had to say something about the section I was in. In his words. "The devils section." He said he would pray for me and I told him that I would pray for him. That really pissed him off.

The fact that the word "cult" is within "occult" really messes things up. People often connect the two as being mutually exclusive, but neither have any relation to each other etymologically. Occult comes from the Latin occulere which means "conceal" while cult comes from the Latin colere + cultus which means "worship". So, by the etymological definition any spiritual sect is a cult, but the word has been more frequently associated with isolated groups with suspicious beliefs and motives.

If only the study of the origins of words was a requirement in grade school. We would be far more intelligent and less likely to blindly cling onto ideas and beliefs, because it would be ingrained in us to discover deeper meaning.

Another word we never think to investigate is the word government which also has roots in Latin as it comes from the words gubernare which means "to manage or control" and mens which means "mind". Therefore, "mind control". Surprise, surprise.

I truly doubt even if the origins of words was taught in school, people would understand the differences. I mean I don't know the origins of the words but do know the difference between Occult and cult. So I really don't think it would make much difference because of the last sentence you wrote about mind control. It is hard to think on your own, it's really hard to study and read and OMG all the differences between everything. It's much easier to let someone else think for you or tell you what to think. The true message is steeped in occultism. But the message isn't really concealed though is it? You just have to climb above the trees to see the forest.

[Deleted]

May 12, 2015 20:02:18 GMT 8 @jamie said:

I truly doubt even if the origins of words was taught in school, people would understand the differences. I mean I don't know the origins of the words but do know the difference between Occult and cult. So I really don't think it would make much difference because of the last sentence you wrote about mind control. It is hard to think on your own, it's really hard to study and read and OMG all the differences between everything. It's much easier to let someone else think for you or tell you what to think. The true message is steeped in occultism. But the message isn't really concealed though is it? You just have to climb above the trees to see the forest.

This right here is why occult wisdom was occulted. It couldn't be trusted to the masses who would misunderstand it and abuse it. It was kept Hermetically sealed to retain its integrity. Today, though, this isn't the case anymore. Anyone can learn the secret teachings of the ages (i.e. climb above the trees to see the forest). So, much of its integrity has been soiled, but it doesn't halt the spiritual progress of those of us who are genuine and dedicated to truth.