dant
The Living Force
Hi all,
I was away from SOTT for a little while, busy with personal hobbies
and the holidays. With my complete changes to self WRT Cassiopaea,
Ra, TBOTD, Gurjeiff(sp?), ..., I have left my hermit existance and have
decided to mingle with people, being invited to attend the holiday parties.
Since it is the holidays, many of the peoples I have encountered are of
different backgrounds but invariably most I have encountered are of the
christian faiths. I have tried hard not to cause distruptions at these parties
and to keep conversations generic or neutral, and simply tried to place
myself as an observer among friends, but mostly strangers. I have
simply allowed others to start the 'religious' conversation and being
a Christmas holiday, I knew that these subjects would crop up and
only then, I would very briefly throw in my new understanding of
subjects related to CASS/RA/TBOTD and so on.
But what I have found is, generally speaking, that many of the peoples
I have encountered have many deeply ingrained belief systems and I was
quite surprised at just how strong they were at holding onto their "scared
cows". I was acutely aware that any discussions outside of their belief
systems would be sure to cause dissension. So, I decided to simply state
very brief statements as to my views as an alternative view and simply let
it fly at that. I was not going to allow myself to get into confrontation and
simply see how the respondents, if any, would try to 'set me on the right
path'. It was a truly amazing experience. I was truly amazed just how
asleep some of these individuals might be.
But the one thing that really caught my attention is the subject of 'faith'.
Some have attempted to explain faith as this: "It is the belief that some
things are beyond human understanding and perception, and for that
reason, we are called to accept the divine order as it is." If I understood
what some are saying in the conversation as it was presented, it is the
belief that humans are not capable of thinking for themselves, and it is
blaphemous to even think that we can become G-d or like G-d.
One person asked me specifically - just how do I pursue this knowledge
and to what source this knowledge originates. This person even went so
far as to admonish me (me, being just an observer and simply listening
"intently") to say that I must contact the 'right knowledgable person or
persons', and in this case, a priest, padre, theologian, etc., so that I might
be set on the 'right path' and so basically from what I can gather from
this person's perspective, is that we are ALL ignorant lay-persons and
cannot correctly THINK for ourselves and any attempts to do so would
place ourselves into great personal risk. I surely wonder, how then,
can one be able to remove themselves from this 'FAITH' concept, as
I see 'faith' as a LIMITER of self and the pursuit of knowledge.
AMAZING!
Another subject I encountered was on the subject of suffering.
It seems that this subject touches a nerve on many people and
perhaps of many different faiths, I don't know for sure. But it seems,
that some believe, that suffering is a necessary requirement in order
to 'save souls' and this is implied to mean souls other than yourself.
Some believe this is the salvation that we are called to do because
the bible says so. From what I can gather here, it seems to me that
it is pure ignorance that causes suffering and I had stated to them
on this subject that 'from ignorance, WE cause suffering as it is a
reflection from what is within, and that sometimes these ignorances
are caused by others as well. Well, when I stated that of course, it
was interesting to see that there was discourse but fortunately it was
left as it is and I refused to allow myself to get into any controntation
and simply let it be at that.
Well - in conclusion - it was interesting and quite enlightning and my
family had enjoyed it when I explained what went on.
Happy holidays!
Dan
I was away from SOTT for a little while, busy with personal hobbies
and the holidays. With my complete changes to self WRT Cassiopaea,
Ra, TBOTD, Gurjeiff(sp?), ..., I have left my hermit existance and have
decided to mingle with people, being invited to attend the holiday parties.
Since it is the holidays, many of the peoples I have encountered are of
different backgrounds but invariably most I have encountered are of the
christian faiths. I have tried hard not to cause distruptions at these parties
and to keep conversations generic or neutral, and simply tried to place
myself as an observer among friends, but mostly strangers. I have
simply allowed others to start the 'religious' conversation and being
a Christmas holiday, I knew that these subjects would crop up and
only then, I would very briefly throw in my new understanding of
subjects related to CASS/RA/TBOTD and so on.
But what I have found is, generally speaking, that many of the peoples
I have encountered have many deeply ingrained belief systems and I was
quite surprised at just how strong they were at holding onto their "scared
cows". I was acutely aware that any discussions outside of their belief
systems would be sure to cause dissension. So, I decided to simply state
very brief statements as to my views as an alternative view and simply let
it fly at that. I was not going to allow myself to get into confrontation and
simply see how the respondents, if any, would try to 'set me on the right
path'. It was a truly amazing experience. I was truly amazed just how
asleep some of these individuals might be.
But the one thing that really caught my attention is the subject of 'faith'.
Some have attempted to explain faith as this: "It is the belief that some
things are beyond human understanding and perception, and for that
reason, we are called to accept the divine order as it is." If I understood
what some are saying in the conversation as it was presented, it is the
belief that humans are not capable of thinking for themselves, and it is
blaphemous to even think that we can become G-d or like G-d.
One person asked me specifically - just how do I pursue this knowledge
and to what source this knowledge originates. This person even went so
far as to admonish me (me, being just an observer and simply listening
"intently") to say that I must contact the 'right knowledgable person or
persons', and in this case, a priest, padre, theologian, etc., so that I might
be set on the 'right path' and so basically from what I can gather from
this person's perspective, is that we are ALL ignorant lay-persons and
cannot correctly THINK for ourselves and any attempts to do so would
place ourselves into great personal risk. I surely wonder, how then,
can one be able to remove themselves from this 'FAITH' concept, as
I see 'faith' as a LIMITER of self and the pursuit of knowledge.
AMAZING!
Another subject I encountered was on the subject of suffering.
It seems that this subject touches a nerve on many people and
perhaps of many different faiths, I don't know for sure. But it seems,
that some believe, that suffering is a necessary requirement in order
to 'save souls' and this is implied to mean souls other than yourself.
Some believe this is the salvation that we are called to do because
the bible says so. From what I can gather here, it seems to me that
it is pure ignorance that causes suffering and I had stated to them
on this subject that 'from ignorance, WE cause suffering as it is a
reflection from what is within, and that sometimes these ignorances
are caused by others as well. Well, when I stated that of course, it
was interesting to see that there was discourse but fortunately it was
left as it is and I refused to allow myself to get into any controntation
and simply let it be at that.
Well - in conclusion - it was interesting and quite enlightning and my
family had enjoyed it when I explained what went on.
Happy holidays!
Dan