Defining the Decalogue Day 2

No graven images or likenesses Does your "God" (or whatever name The Sacred Spirit in your life may use) have a physical image in your mind? When you commune with this Sacred Spirit, what picture do you have in your mind's eye?

Defining the Decalogue Day 1

It seems so easy to pretend that we're all in this together when we all say the same words, but words have different meaning for every person. I'd like to ask what other people think about what we refer to as The Ten Commandments. You all know more than you ever asked for about how I define everything.

I just feel like I'm not understanding something that I should about other people's interpretations. For this reason, I'm putting out a question a day for the next ten days.

I know that different religions word and number the commandments differently, but they all seem to point to the same rules. These are taken from Wikipedia.

Thank you, in advance, for helping me with this effort.

I am the LORD thy God How do you describe God?

To Teach Is the Essence of Humanity

It took a while to identify our joint father in Abraham;
He was certainly not presented as a perfect father or man.
Because he gave away the mother and a child of his loins,
We've continued to, in opposing directions, keep going.
When will we wake up, as a family, and choose to go back,
All the way before we pretended to knowledge we still lack?

True Buddhists don't kill; they embrace all of earthly life;
We, as Abraham's children, should be equally tired of strife.
Our ancestors made many mistakes; it is time to forgive them;
We have it in our power to define our own roles as humans.
There will always be base animals who seek to destroy
Anything that they see another family or person enjoy.

Isn't it time that we stop using these animals as our example?
Our history as humanity should have examples most ample,
Of the ways to provide for peace for our own families;
Protection from jealousy and greed our greatest human need.
The poor, honest workers must rise up with those
Who are, of responsible compassion, for them disposed.

We must pledge to support only those who will work,
Not the the rulers' drones who, their own strengths, shirk.
Our challenge is to refuse government support for our faith;
This support has been the downfall of our human race.
The Jew, those who follow Jesus, and the Muslim
Are all taught that we're meant to be a family of all humans.

Teach, teach, and teach some more, if you have a talent;
This is the role for which humanity was actually sent.
We do humankind no favors when we control by fear;
This should be, by now, to humans, abundantly clear.
Anyone who will not learn from others is surely a fool,
And they will always be the controlling despots' tools.

Do not worry if your wisdom seems to fall on deaf ears;
It may not be in this generation that anyone hears.
You have done your utmost, if as a learned human,
You've passed down your knowledge to a young man or woman.
And if you are blessed with talent, write it for the ages;
Remember that lasting change only comes in slow stages.

The Path to Peace on Earth

Why do we, as humans, fear that which we can't understand,

And attempt to explain all Sacred within the limitations of man?

As a mother, I am awed by what came to life within my being,

Outside of the area of what I was, then, capable of seeing.

I am saddened by human science's belief that we are in control;

It seems to diminish the cycle that makes each generation whole.

Humanity used to know that there was a natural cycle, from birth,

That continued to feed the universal Sacred cycles of our universe.

We now feel that, in allowing our earthly natures to progress,

We are somehow allowing our best of humanity to regress.

If we really believed in an Omnipotent Power of the Universe,

We'd believe that, at times, our earthly gains have to reverse.

This is not to say that previous humans have summarily failed;

It is simply that universal peace takes time, in order to prevail.

The glory of universal peace among people, and our harmony,

I will probably not be blessed enough, in my life, to see.

This does not preclude my responsibility to add my voice

In belief that peace among the nations of humanity is a choice. 

I live my life with an open mind, and an open heart and spirit,

Hoping where there is The Sacred Spirit's voice, we'll hear it.

Wherever I believe I hear instructions on the path to peace,

I commit to a process, that in my singing it out, I will increase.

I know that, in my mother's and father's faith, women don't speak;

I am weary that, in this way, only their voice of God, we seek.

Their path to peace continues to defer to their ancestral past;

I believe this was not meant to be Divine manifestation's last.

When will humankind have the faith in their own families to proceed;

Joining the path of all humanity, where peace on earth will succeed?

Peace, like in our own families, doesn't mean we all agree.
It means that we respect each others' core humanity.
We teach, by our own example, how we wish to be treated,
Allowing, within each community, their own justice to be meted.

Centuries of religious ritual can only be changed from within,
But the telling of our own stories is a place for others to begin.
I believe that this is the true purpose of the scriptures;
To give stories of how others grew from historical strictures.

The Sacred Spirit is in all humans; this we must project,
Especially toward the innocent children we're to protect.
Fear and jealousy are not parts of The Sacred Spirit;
If our lives say this loud enough, the universe will hear it.

Crusades vs. Compassion

Why do we expect secular institutions to provide the resources for administering Judeo-Christian charity?
Is it because we people of the Judeo-Christian God fail miserably at caring for our own, we have set up governmental institutions to take up our slack. If Judeo-Christians were people who believed in practicing what we preach, we would accept no more tax breaks for religious contributions. We would, "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars." We would take care of even those who slow down our progress, accepting this as part of the anointed progression of our people.

We would commit personally to obeying the laws in our own lives and homes, rather than simply posting them on our walls to guide others. If we practiced what we preach, we would have less need for juries or judges because we would follow the prescriptions for making peace with others, as outlined in the scriptural stories of Solomon and Jewish Jesus's saying in Matthew 18. We would respectfully confront each other, rather rushing to the courts.

Women would stop hiding their strengths behind fathers, husbands, and children. Men would stop hiding their fears behind aggressive action. Men and women would think before they speak, and speak clearly of their personal beliefs and desires. We would also accept women as equal partners to men, honored in their abilities to be homemakers, prophets, preachers, and agents of change, as were the mothers of the Old Testament and Jesus' apostles. We would accept men as emotionally equal to women, and encourage their gentle strengths, as are evidenced in the Psalms, as well as their more animal strengths.

Crusades don't happen where their is responsible compassion. Until we accept women as equal interpreters of the laws laid out by all the men of human history, we will forever be plagued by competition in the supremacy of the genders and classes of society. When will we stop the human stupidity? Will we wait until we, and our progeny, and their progeny, are all dead?

Education as Anti-War

Why do we humans believe that we have to bond against others in order to bond to each other? Isn't it enough that we have others who are comfortable with the ways we and our household behaves, without the need to turn against anyone who acts or believes otherwise? Are we so weak in our own beliefs that we are afraid of being infected by the beliefs of others if we are in close proximity to them?

Must we treat all others as weeds that are endangering the perfect symmetry of our own gardens? Do we really have our own gardens in such perfect order that a beautiful wild flower (weed) or two may not be a welcome addition to the plot? Life is not symmetric in its natural state. The left side of a human body does differ from the right side; identical twins do have some definable differences.

It is true that, in unfamiliar surroundings, we must watch our children more closely, in order to observe that to which they are being exposed. If we are strong in our own values, we can observe dispassionately and explain to our children why we don't, in our homes and communities, do things that others may do. If we cannot keep our passions under control while observing, we are free in the United States of America, to simply walk away or avert our eyes, and those of our children.

If we treat our lives with our own children as PG experiences, we will protect them. We do this, not by condemning others, but by offering them Parental Guidance in the form of our own actions and our ability to explain why we act in specific ways in our own homes. Human animals want boundaries; it is up to parents to offer and explain those of their family in a way that respects their children and others. Respect doesn't mean acceptance, so it also may mean estrangement when our boundaries are not respected by others.

If we strengthen our own family bonds, and study the ways of other in order to stop the fear of infection, will we still need war?

How Do You Define The Soul?

I was taught, as a Judeo-Christian, that humans were the only animals with souls, and that all homo-sapiens, in fact, have souls. My experiences in life tell me otherwise. I have met too many people who, when I look into their eyes, exhibit no feeling at all that would lead me to believe that they are any more soulful than robots. Sadly, I have seen even infants in whom I see no sense of soulfulness, that aspect having been replaced by the dehumanizing affects of deprivation and terror.

I have also seen such joy, pain, fear, and compassion in the eyes of "lesser" animals, that I have come to believe that the only thing that actually separates homo-sapiens from other animals is the ability to make informed choices. Terror destroys our ability to think and make choices; thus destroying our humanity, what some refer to as the soul. Inflicting terror and arrogant authority as forms of control is why I walked away from my parents' religion.

I had never deeply bonded to an animal, other than homo-sapiens, until I met my very first dog, at the age of 59. She looked in my eyes at the shelter and our souls simply connected. I took her home. It was in watching her rub her body all over the grass and snow, like she would a parent, sibling, or a lover, that I saw her "humanity." It was in watching her absolute joy in being tormented by our cat and doing likewise to him that I saw "sibling" bonding in its simplest form.

I have, in fact, see a cat absorbing The Sacred Spirit of the perfect patch of sunshine and a dog absorbing The Sacred Spirit of the physical earth through the pores of her skin. I have come to believe that there are many manifestations of life other than homo-sapiens with what we refer to as souls, and that there are many homo-sapiens that have none of this spirit of The Sacred.