Friday, August 29, 2014

Not the Nicene Creed

I have been asked if I believe in the Nicene creed; the answer is that I do not. I am suspicious of anything created by the Roman church hierarchy in partnership with political power, as was the Nicene Creed. The Nicene Creed seems to me a one upsmanship in the religious power game.

I believe in God, the father almighty, maker of heaven and earth. (To put one human face on The Sacred Spirit diminishes the majesty of The Sacred Spirit's manifestations throughout the universe.)

And in Jesus Christ, his only son, our lord. (I believe that all who have ears to hear and eyes to see The Sacred Spirit share in the same Spirit that Jesus embodied on earth and freed up at Pentecost. We are told that Jesus said he was not our lord, but our brother and friend.)

Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, (as are all conceived in love).

Born of the virgin Mary. (I don't believe that virgin births were physically possible then. Even if a child is conceived without sexual intercourse, the act of giving vaginal birth breaks the seal of the womb, the hymen. I believe the fixation on virginity makes a travesty of the true process of sexual intercourse, gestation, and bloody births attended by frightened fathers.)

Suffered under Pontius Pilot, was crucified, dead and buried. (The fixation on the last three days of the life of Jesus are the stuff of warrior mythology. Jesus was a joyful Jew for many years; this is where I put my focus.)

On the third day, he rose again (who cares whether this was in his body or simply in the power presence those who loved him felt when they were gathered together?) and thence will come to judge the living and the dead. (While we live, we share our positive and negative power with all those we encounter. This energy lives on, so there is no need for judgement. It is all an eternal balancing act that we have no way to know, nor should we, how it ends.)

I believe in the Holy Ghost (Sacred Spirit), the Holy Catholic Church (not Roman catholic), the communion of saints (as all have the ability to be to some), the forgiveness of sin (through human restitution) and life everlasting (through metamorphosis). *This is what I believe.*




Monday, August 25, 2014

Jesus, the Man, as Mensch

Should we stop allowing only science to define when actual humans came into being? Should we redefine what it is that makes a member of the group of animals called homo sapiens fully human? Would we do anything differently, as a group of animals with varying abilities, if we placed new rules on human society and civilization? What if we stop believing that all homo sapiens are fully human?

I submit that what we need to use as the basic criteria for being fully human is responsible, committed compassion, where an individual is willing to give over one's own survival to the survival of the responsibly compassion of the next generation. This would mean a definition of species/tribe by practiced values, not by blood, baptisms, rituals, or creeds. I await the day that we think through who is in our species/tribes, rather than acting on ancestral memory which exacts unthinking loyalty and revenge, or on our animal instincts of survival of the most physically fit.

My Jewish friends are fond of the Yiddish word "Mensch." My understanding is that this is the highest designation for a fellow member of the species homo sapiens. It translates to "a real human." We need to look back at all the erudition of the Jews, and the fact that Jesus came from a long line of this people. Is there anything higher to which a homo sapiens can aspire than to be a real "mensch?" This is what I believe Jesus came to show us how to be.





Thursday, August 21, 2014

Free From Feelings

A story about our mother was told to me by one of my sisters; I think this explains a lot of my frustration with people and teamwork. The story goes that, when my sisters descended on our mothers disastrous mess of a home in order to prepare it for a huge family function, my mother crawled under the sink and began to clean the pipes with a toothbrush. How many people are so overwhelmed by the vast mess we see on our earth that we spend our whole lives under the sink, polishing the pipes that are working just fine in their present states?

They have no idea how to plan for a party and they won't ask anyone else for a plan because that would make the planner 'the boss." They all simply wander around without direction looking for some tiny detail on which to concentrate all their energies. Quite often they are busy feeding baby birds that have fallen out of trees while their own children scream in their cribs.

This is how I experience prayer: It seems to me that people are simply polishing their crowns for the future that they imagine will be so much better than this one, without ever rolling up their sleeves to straighten up the present mess. I can never understand how heaven will be any better than earth since humans will still be their individual selves after death. I prefer to think that all my energy will be reabsorbed by the Big Bang going backward into the pureness of a Universal, Eternal, Shimmering, Shared Sacred Spirit of Pure Life.

I am frustrated because all those who I had hoped would be part of this party are too busy polishing their own individual pipes (or crowns) to help prepare for the party. Even when I peek under the sink to ask if they need anything, they seem to think I'm spying on them and may somehow steal some of the shine off their pipes. They hide their toothbrushes and tell me to go find my own pipes to polish. So I do, and then they are unhappy because my pipes are now made into a pipe organ that is inviting too may to come hear the music.

When I turn to the kitchen to cook, and give the pipe organ over to others, they become angry because I "think I'm better than them" even though I am now serving the rest of them, as if I am a slave. They then invite me to celebrations at which I am told that I can't have any of what they are serving, and are angry when I get hurt feelings over this.

The only conclusion I can come to is that they don't want me at their parties, even in the hereafter. This is okay because I don't want to be in my own little house, with my own lonely crown, competing for who sits longest on Daddy God's lap or who is on the right or left hand of King Jesus, for all eternity. I simply want to be absorbed, with all those I have loved, back into the Sacred Spirit from which I believe I came. They don't want to do this with me; that's okay, but it still hurts my feelings. I hope not to have any feelings in eternity.

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Attachment to Our Flesh

How can humans have so much attachment to our flesh while continuing to profess belief in the supremacy of The Sacred Spirit that is only housed in our exterior shells? There seems to be a disconnect between what we say we believe and the ways we live our lives, especially during times in which we are threatened by becoming, through physical metamorphosis of "death," existent only in our spiritual states. What are we to make of the differences between the ways the other animals adhere to their physical existences and the ways those who profess faith in eternal life adhere to theirs?

At least men are allowed to die with honor; while women with family responsibilities are blamed for our own deaths, as if we meant to abandon our posts as caretakers. Widowers become sainted; widows become prey. This seems to all originate with warrior and savior myths in primitive societies of homo sapiens. Is it any wonder that I reject the many gods to whom these people pray?  In my opinion, rising above these superstitions and bloody sacrifices makes homo sapiens fully human.

I am sickened by the idea that any of us have any culpability, either from our ancestors or ourselves, for the unearned pain that pervades our lives. Those who say that the pain put upon some and not others is all in "God's" plan are not earning any adherents to the religions of these ancient superstitious ancestors. They are simply making matters more complicated for those looking for justice as a meaning in life. There are no "gods;" there are only incarnations of Eternal Energy. Some of these manifestations are Sacred. How each of us exemplifies and inhabits every incarnation and experience creates an aura that lives along with, and beyond, our individual physical manifestations of life on earth.

Many years ago, a wise man told me that the problem with treating people in chronic pain is that so many take pain personally, as if they were given a specific penance on earth. I have also come to realize that many people invent pain because they feel that this gets them closer to their "God." How can either attitude be healthy for those of us on earth? Why would anyone want to be close to a "God" who demands pain and/or bloody death, especially as punishment for ancient transgressions of others?

My hunger for inclusion in the purity of The Sacred Spirit is so great that it takes away my breath. I have trouble interrupting the visions of complete inclusion to relate to the physical world around me. It is physically painful to have to continue dragging around this body that seems to be a barrier between me and all The Sacred Spirits of those who have come before me and impact my life every day. If I were a theologian or a saint, it would be called, "Holy longing," but for we mere mortals, it is often called craziness or depression.

There is no individual me; there is only a shell that walks, talks, sings, cries, laughs, cook, cleans for so many stranded spirits that can't do so for themselves. This is the life to which I was born; I only hope someone will be there to hold and absorb the last of my Sacred Spirit me when it is my time to let go of this flesh for good.





Monday, August 18, 2014

An Earth Fit For Eternity

I believe the lack of religion in so many is a necessary step in allowing The Sacred Spirit to resurface from the roots, which originate long before Genesis, and even longer before Jesus. We must graft ourselves and our families directly to the source of life, without any intermediaries pretending to produce a better path (or stronger plant).

What we are currently calling "Christianity," I see as being so wrong for so long that the only way to save the root is to cut the vine completely down to the ground and allow new sprouts to form. Too much bad has been grafted onto the strong, pure root stock to produce pure fruit of The Sacred Spirit. When we are wrong for so many generations, it is difficult to get back to our original roots. There is none of the true vine left; it has been poisoned by too much sweet sympathy masquerading as committed, responsible compassion.

When Jesus walked the earth, he was not a preacher in a mega church, nor was he a high priest performing every manner of ritualistic sacrifice. He was a joyful Jew who walked with family and friends, following in the footsteps of generations of very faithful Jews. Where did that Jesus go? How did religion turn the great love that Jesus had for his friends, causing him to accept death at the hands of those jealous of his influence, into a pagan blood ritual to appease an equally jealous, vengeful "God?" How did religion turn an intimate sacred supper with friends and family into a sterile stage play, with so much ceremony masquerading as sacred, soulful communion among a committed community?

When faith moved out of the homes and neighborhoods, it lost the ways of what Jesus radiated, a pureness of Sacred Spirit that made others so angry that they killed him in order to stop seeing his light. As with all truly great people, The Spirit of Jesus had already inflamed all that he encountered. No amount of torture, or even physical death, could dim this in those others. His roots had been growing for so many generations that the vine would continue to come back, no matter what was done to it.

When those who sought spiritual power "converted" others with threats of torture and death, sprouts of poison were grafted onto The Sacred Spirit's root. The vine has rotted from the inside out. The fruit is now poisoned. The "Holy" Roman Empire has poisoned the soil from which Jesus came, and has fed too many generations with their sweet tasting poison. It is time for all people of faith in The Sacred Spirit available to all humanity to repudiate the religion formed in  all unholy alliances of church and state. It is time to reclaim the roots of our ancestral Sacred Spirit, and share it as it was meant to be shared, one earthly entity to another.

I believe that Moses came from this stock, as did others who have sought to take others on the path to the full humanity of responsible, committed compassion, which takes many years to form in one person. It takes centuries to form in a community of people. We have made The Most Sacred Spirit into our own images, and have created a culture of jealousy and greed. Only by going back to The Base will we create an earth that is fit for eternity.


Saturday, August 16, 2014

Kill the Killers and Leave Our Children Alone

If the suicides of several of our favorite funny men teaches us only one thing, it should be that men are in great pain, while pretending that they are having fun. They have been taught, from before birth, that real men don't cry or show weakness in the front of others. This is because they are expected to live in a world where homo sapiens act like simple-minded animals, and they are treated as such. They know that any show of weakness is an invitation to predators to finish them off. Maddeningly, the biggest bullies often including their own fathers and other adult authority figures.

Why do women continue to bear children with men who have proven themselves to be such bullies and inhuman beasts? Isn't it time that we teach our sons that we want them in the house with us, not out defending themselves against all the bullies who line up against them? Isn't it time that we shut our doors, hearts, spirit, arms, and legs to homo sapiens who act as wild beasts?

I abhor adults who make themselves more powerful in the eyes of others by ridiculing those different than they are, especially when the victim of ridicule has no defense against the bully. A child is not supposed to be an adult in any way; they are to be protected and taught by example until they are ready to cut the ties from those who have protected and guided them. This is the gift and the challenge of human parenting; the more human we want our children to become, the longer it takes before they are ready to stand on their own.

Only the children know when they reach this point, and it is often in a boomerang manner, hoping to get what they needed from us, or others, before they left the first time (...and the second, and the third...). Often they are angry that they don't find all that they want in our nests; this is when very strong friendships with other well-grounded adults come into play for us. The most blessed parents are those who have this kind of friendship with their parenting partners.

I have found it extremely important in my family life to have very well-defined rules for what we allow in our home. Children will all attempt to break those boundaries down by dragging in every manner of stray. Even the strays are expected to step in line with the rules of the family. To allow otherwise actually weakens the trust the children have that you are strong enough to protect them.

Teenagers, like infants, are supposed to be somewhat narcissistic.  The big difference is that, with years of example and empowerment from committed, compassionate parents, teenagers can begin to choose where to invest their human potential and efforts. Too often, especially in men, I see a tendency to act as teenagers again just as their sons and daughters so greatly need them to be strong adults. In women, I often see the tendency to want to be princesses rather than step to the plate as full adult managers of their own homes and families. If we are parents, we are no longer "girls" or "one of the boys." It is our jobs to put the needs of our family and the community that helps us support them above what we want (and sometimes above what we need).

The play at feeling no pain as we kill our own children and ourselves must end! It is time to stop playing at being royalty, creating chaos with endless wars. We must all act as committed, compassionate adults at the appropriate ages. Either we choose this path, or risk being treated as nothing other than wild animals threatening our defined home boundaries. I am in favor of mercifully killing all who have no ability or intent to act as full humans, as I would treat a pack of wild hyenas attacking my children and home. Drones seem to be good for this, killing the wild beasts while protecting the children and their homes.







Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Accountability and Authority

As long as religions use fear as a motivator, so too will others in authority. What can possible cause more fear than the belief that another person, priest, prophet, pastor has the power to affect your happiness for all of eternity? It is bad enough that might on earth is often the arbiter of what is considered right; it is so much more damaging when we are taught that there are those on earth with the power to influence the "gods" and all eternity.

When we grant authority over our eternal destinies to others, we become children with no authority over ourselves. Why would anyone want this to be a permanent position in their own lives? Isn't it enough that, as true children, we are subject to the whims of those who are stronger than are we?

As a pre-Vatican II Roman Catholic child, I was taught that I was responsible for my own actions at the age of eight. This responsibility gave me no authority, however. All authority over me and my parents was held by the Roman Catholic hierarchy. Only they had the right to dictate our behaviors and prescribe restitution and retribution. My intensely devout Roman Catholic parents followed the lead of their church, as did my older brother and sister.

It is indescribable how horrible it felt to know that I was incapable of saving myself from this tyranny, as the teaching of the church cursed all who came under its power with an eternal mark on the psyche (soul?). "Once a Catholic, always a Catholic" was the mantra of all associated with their teachings.

Early on, I don't remember the church teaching that they were a Christian church, only referring to us and themselves as Catholic, as if this included, and was the exclusive body of Jesus on earth. All who were not Roman Catholic, according to my early education, were not destined for eternal salvation and peace. Only the laying on of priestly hands in the sacraments ensured an eternity with "God" and Jesus. Only the priests had the power to remove sins, even those that the priests committed against us.

The Roman church had absolute authority, not only over our peace on earth, but also over our eternities. Unfortunately, they granted themselves immunity from any responsibility for their own actions, absolving each other as a matter of course. For this reason, I have defected from the city/state/church/religion of the Vatican and Rome, though still maintaining my inclusion in the body of Jesus on this earth.

I have studied the beliefs of many religions, all of which seem to operate on fear of eternal exclusion from a special group of those who believe themselves to be the arbiters of what is right for all on earth and in eternity. Is there any religion on earth that doesn't profess to have the power to damn us to an eternity of pain? Is there any religion on earth that doesn't put human and other physical faces on the immense, eternal energy that encompasses and embodies all in our vast universe, thus limiting the limitless manifest experiences of The Sacred? Is there any religion on earth that actually seeks to create heavenly harmony on earth, as well as in eternity?

If I am to be held accountable for my actions, I must have authority over myself. I may not always be able to make right what I have made wrong on this earth, and nobody on earth has the power to simply make the consequences of my actions simply disappear. It is my responsibility to make my own amends, where possible. This is a burden I am willing to bear, trusting that in the fullness of eternity, the balance of peaceful harmony will prevail, when the universe is ready for the immensity of The Sacred Spirit.

Sunday, August 10, 2014

Abuse, Abortion, the Unborn, and the Inhuman

I am convinced that it is better to return the unborn to the universe while they cannot anticipate pain than it is to wait until they are forced onto uncaring parents and society that will surely abuse them, perhaps even before they are born. I am also convinced that there are those who cannot stop themselves from harming others for whom suicide may be the most noble path. I feel this is especially true for those who have a compulsion to take the innocence away from children. Only we can expose others to responsible, committed compassion, human-to-human, otherwise we cannot become fully human ourselves, and neither can our offspring.

The question uppermost in my mind in recent times has been, "Are all homo sapiens actually fully human?" I have come to this question while pondering the nature of evil on our earth. How is it that we continue to consider those without compassion as equal in humanity to those who live their lives seeking committed, compassionate community with others? It seems to me that there are many animals with words who appear to be human, until we look deeply into their eyes and actions. These animals have no light of unselfish love in their eyes; therefore, I believe them to be something less than human.

I believe that there are many who are born without the ability to have compassion, as they are born to animals, even homo sapiens, without this ability in themselves. I question that animals gestated, born and bred in trauma, drug addiction, war, or other abuse will ever be able to retrain their brains to any other way of looking at life. It is difficult enough for those with solidly safe backgrounds to overcome the effects of abuse and other trauma.

Unwanted pregnancy surely produces different chemicals in the system of the fetus than does the wanted pregnancy. These chemicals must permanently affect the brain of the future child. The same is probably true for the fetus "fed" drugs throughout gestation. The ability of the baby homo sapien to connect emotionally may not exist when the baby is born, or ever.

Another issue facing the brains of unwanted babies seems to be the lack of emotional connection between the baby and the primary caregiver(s). It seems to me that emotion, like speech, is learned as much by eye contact and other physical observation as it is in any other manner. Do we know when it is too late to intervene in the absence of parental or caregiver compassion for baby homo sapiens?

Even those with the capacity for compassion can revert back to their more base animal selves during trauma and PTSD. Those who have seemingly overcome their immediate animal instincts often lose all human reason when PTSD presents old injuries as happening in the here and now. This observation is what leads me to support abortion and to accept some suicides as acts of nobility.

Forcing evil homo sapiens to bear more of the same seems to be counter to creating peace on earth. I, for one, am happy to accept the narcissistic decision to live only for oneself, as long as the inhuman are willing to totally support and isolate themselves. Barring this, I support permanent isolation of them, with easy access to ways to end their own lives.

Perhaps if we redefine what it means for a homo sapien to be human, we can make progress toward peace on earth, as it is a heaven.