No one in the world will do something that they perceive as truly negative. If it does inconvenience or pain them in some way, they do it because they perceive a greater good.
The concept of SELF can be expanded from the individual to the family, tribe, country, the world, etc. Depending on how big a sphere of influence you consider, your decision will always be to the advantage of that scope.

Every action we take is a result of our understanding at that point in time.
What you are aware of and how much you understand at a certain point determines what your choice will be at that time.

The only thing we can do is focus on gaining better understanding; to be more conscious of ourselves and the world.
If this makes sense to you then that isn’t even a decision. To gain understanding makes sense and that is what you will do.
If it doesn’t make sense then there is still no decision. You won’t take the time to try and gain understanding.

And so, choice exists but not in the way it is commonly understood. Your actions ARE willed but happen based on current understanding

As an individual, you look back on your life and identify with your struggle, perceiving yourself as a static consciousness that could have arrived at infinite possibilities through choice.
This is not the case; you are an entirely different consciousness than you were last week, let alone last year. Your have grown, systematically to a single, inevitable point.
That is why an experience that happens early in life as opposed to later in life will prompt a different reaction. The understanding at that point in time is different. Things were learned and a different action will result.

When people ponder and deliberate, it is simply mental activity.  All that will ever take place is the choice that appears to be the best (be it long or short term).
Based on the experience of decision-making we mentally create the concept of multiple potential futures. There’s a feeling of choosing as you contemplate but it’s just a mental perception, an illusion.
We create the idea of making this choice but in the long run, no matter how long and hard we deliberate, a certain decision will take place.
It’s like water flowing downhill. The lowest channel is the one that the water is going to go through. When it is blocked, it changes directions. It’s totally natural. It flows on its own. And that’s the way we work.

That being said, this is NOT all out determinism. You are not destined to marry a certain woman. You are not destined to be a good person or a bad person. Your development is based on your understanding throughout your life.

Neither does this deny the existence of evil; it just states that it is a result of ignorance.

Bhagavad Gita 5:5 – The wise see knowledge and action as one. They see truly.

Check out compatibilism:

St. Pat cleans house

I can’t let my Patron Saint’s day go by without a shout.

Growing up with an Irish dad, I was constantly inundated with stories of St. Patrick.

My favorite, though, was that he drove all the snakes out of Ireland and to this day there’s not a single snake left on the entire island.

In a sort of reverse Pied Piper meets Moses, Patrick raised his staff and every snake before him made a bee-line for the sea and drowned.

In later years I came to see this story for what it was, a great metaphor for the annihilation of the ego.

We have many egos not just one. Every personality defect we have is it’s own independent ego craving consciousness and attention. Oftentimes they even conflict.

Regardless, it is up to us to actively work on driving each and every snake out of our own personal Ireland.

Really, it is the same metaphor as St. Michael driving Lucifer from Heaven.

Satan represents the great ego of pride; the origin and source of all the other egos.

Michael stabs the Dragon through the Vishuddhi Chakra, silencing him and effectively destroying his power over the other angels (aka the mind).

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!!

Matt 12:32 – Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.

As a Universalist, I have a problem with the concept of of an unforgivable sin. What could be so bad that an all-loving-God could be incapable of forgiving it??? It’s pretty bleak, especially coming from the mouth of Christ himself. Furthermore, it’s unclear. What does this mean, ‘to sin against the Holy Spirit?’I believe that the Holy Spirit is the primordial cosmic energy of the universe. It is the dynamic, activating force that moves through everything. Animating, giving life and order. It is mother nature, it is DNA, it is personal inspiration. Binah to the Kabbalist, Shakti to the Hindu.
It is the profound, ineffable intuition that is experienced by everybody on a deeply personal level.
It is your innermost cause.
Your fundamental nature.And it is different for everybody.
It was pen and paper for Shakespeare, it was physics for Einstein. Each did what he was called to do.
Can you imagine what a tragedy it would have been had they decided to go into the family business? Not just for them but for humanity as a whole.

To ‘sin against the Holy Spirit’ then, is a personal betrayal of one’s Self in the gravest way.
Unforgivable because ignorance cannot be claimed. Shakespeare knew he had to write. Betray yourself and there is no mistaking it. Ignorance is forgivable but we cannot be ignorant of the Holy Spirit. It is intrinsic pervasive and undeniable. It is our deep, personal, cosmic experience. To reject it is the ultimate slap in our own face.

It is a conscious rejection of a facet of God that has already been known and experienced.

So when Christ says “Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven,” he means it.
The Son of Man not just Jesus. It is anyone who has reached Enlightenment (made Keter into Da’at); Buddha, The Bodhisattvas and the Saints. If you disagree with the teaching of a master that is fine inasmuch as it goes against your personal understanding of Truth.

I’m reminded of St. Justin’s writing on the Logos:

Those who have not accepted Christ but follow the moral law of their hearts follow God, because it is God who has written the moral law in each person’s heart. Though man may not explicitly recognize God, he has the spirit of Christ if he follows Jesus’ moral laws, written in his heart.

The religion is not what matters, it’s the personal calling.

D.H. Lawrence, one of my favorite writers, reinforces this:

My great religion is a belief in the blood, the flesh, as being wiser than the intellect. We can go wrong in our minds. But what our blood feels and believes and says, is always true. The intellect is only a bit and a bridle.

Likewise, Swami Vivekanandha:

The greatest religion is to be true to your own nature. Have faith in yourselves!

Obviously, this is not a hall pass to give into every base desire and claim it as the will of your Higher Self. On the contrary, the ego must be controlled by the willpower at all times. How do you know the difference? One’s true calling does not change from day to day and remains with you even when you are at peace. Especially when you are at peace.

My original gripe still remains. Can a sin truly be eternal?
Yes and no.
The point is that if you Sin against yourself, only you can forgive yourself by righting that wrong.

When Scrooge abandoned true love in exchange for personal greed, he betrayed himself in the worst way. But was he beyond redemption?
No. There is always redemption. That’s what the prodigal son is all about. ‘A Christmas Carol’ is just a retelling of the great parable.

So, in Shakespeare’s own words, “This above all: to thine own self be true”

We all have IQs. Or Intelligence Quotients. IQ measure human’s ability to reason with language, numbers and spatial relations. We also have EQs. Or Emotional Quotients.

Made famous by psychologist Daniel Goleman, they describe humans’ skill handling emotions. We also have what could be called MQs, or Moral Quotients. Researcher Lawrence Kohlberg has been among those measuring humans’ capacity for empathy and ethical reasoning.

We also, I would suggest, have SQs, or Spiritual Quotients.

Psychologists have done incredible work in the past century measuring the developmental stages of humans as they transform from mother-hugging infants into rebellious teenagers and, with a bit of luck, responsible adults. Some complain that religiosity, or belief in God, should not be similarly categorized. In this politically correct era, they don’t want to hear about (gasp) spiritual hierarchies — in which one spiritual stage is considered higher than another. But why not?

Just as Swiss social scientist Jean Piaget mapped out the four stages in which children learn to take in reality, and psychologist Erik Erikson outlined eight healthy stages we can go through from birth to death, many thinkers are making a good case that humans also spiritually evolve.

People are capable of progressing up a spiritual ladder. It doesn’t mean they become smug on the higher spiritual rungs. Au contraire. But they can learn to function at a more complex, subtle and profound spiritual level.

Some of the scholars, psychologists and mystics who have been mapping the stages of spiritual growth include Clare Graves, Robert Kegan, Sri Aurobindo, Don Beck and especially Ken Wilber in his book, Integral Spirituality. In Vancouver, educator Chris Dierkes is among those specializing on the subject.

One of the spiritual development experts I find most intriguing is psychologist James Fowler of Emory University, author of the classic book, Stages of Faith. Fowler believes every baby starts out “undifferentiated.” Babies don’t make a distinction between a mother’s warm, safe breast and God.

Fowler doesn’t even call this primal beginning a stage. As a result, he says the first stage of spiritual development, which lasts from ages two to seven, is the one of unconscious religious fantasy.

After this comes the “mythic” stage. It’s when people begin holding to literal and absolute truths. They might, for instance, believe the Genesis account of a six-day creation is fact. After this comes the third stage — of “conventional” faith or spirituality.

It occurs when people move beyond their family of origin and seriously engage schools, peers and the media. They accept the judgment of significant others, like teachers and clergy. This conformist stage is when people develop loyalty to an ideology, group or lifestyle — whether religious, military, artistic, economic or political. It is also when many religious groups often choose, unwisely, to hold “confirmation” classes, requiring teenagers to commit to a religious doctrine.

Many people, however, move on from this conformist approach — to stage four, which is where Fowler says spirituality becomes more of an individual struggle. Stage four, to Fowler, marks a more reflective time, where self-actualization becomes the prime concern, and people try to take personal responsibility for their beliefs. In stage four a person starts listening to often-disturbing inner voices that challenge orthodoxy. They begin looking seriously at other religions and belief systems, realizing some of their convictions may be relative. This stage can happen in young adulthood or in one’s 30s or 40s.

It often rises up just after religious “confirmation” classes, leading many teens to completely reject the religion of their youth. It is a “demythologizing” stage, Fowler says. It includes some atheists.

“It’s dangers are inherent in its strengths; stage four comes with an excessive confidence in . . . critical thought and a kind of second narcissism.”

The fifth stage of spiritual development leads to integration. In this stage, which is unusual before mid-life, Fowler says we recognize our own weaknesses and can see truth in paradox. The religion scholar Paul Ricouer would see stage five as one of “second naivete,” Fowler says.

It’s a helpful phrase. “Second naivete” occurs when people no longer take literally the stories of any spiritual or cultural tradition, either western or eastern. Instead, they deeply explore in themselves the “symbolic power” of stories about Moses, Jesus, Krishna, Buddha and others. They treat the stories “as if” they were true, mining them for transcendent meaning.

Finally, there is the highest stage of spiritual growth — six: The universal. Fowler says it is “exceedingly rare” to achieve stage six, which some might call enlightenment. People in this stage “have become incarnators and actualizers of the spirit of an inclusive and fulfilled human community.”

“Universalizers are often experienced as subversive of the structures (including religious) by which we sustain our individual and corporate survival and significance. Many persons in this stage die at the hands of those whom they hope to change,” Fowler says.

No doubt thinking of people such as Jesus, Gandhi, Thich Nhat Hanh, Buddha, Aung San Suu Kyi and other courageous luminaries, Fowler says universalizers don’t necessarily have to believe in God. But they do “have a special grace that makes them seem more lucid, more simple and yet somehow more fully human than the rest of us.” They are not necessarily perfect. But people who have reached this enlightened sixth stage of spiritual development think globally, while still cherishing the particular.

That includes their specific communities, which at their best can be “vessels of the universal.” Life, for those at stage six, is “both loved and held to loosely,” Fowler says. “Such persons are ready for fellowship with persons at any of the other stages and from any other faith tradition.”

To me, Fowler and his ilk make a convincing and eloquent case: Not all spiritualities are created equal.

This has created incredibly heated debate on both sides. It seems that secular atheists want nothing more than to tear down religion any way they can. On the other side of the fence, staunch Christians work to disprove obvious similarities.
Here’s some of the back and forth:

19th century liberal German philosophers claimed that Jesus was nothing more than a copy of the widespread worship of dying and rising fertility gods in various places—Tammuz in Mesopotamia, Adonis in Syria, Attis in Asia Minor, and Osiris in Egypt. Theologians responded angrily, pointing out any and all dissimilarities.

The Egyptian Horus is a big one; resurrected god of the divine goodness, wisdom, truth and purity.

The movie ‘Zeitgeist’ draws the following similarities:

• He was born of a virgin
• A star in the East proclaimed his arrival
• Three kings came to adore the new-born
• He became a child prodigy
• At age 30 he was “baptized”
• Horus had special group of followers
• He was resurrected after three days

Christian Journalist Lee Strobel responded in his book “The Case for the real Jesus” with incorrect assertions. He claimed Isis was not a virgin (she was renowned as such), that Horus was not resurrected (he was) and many other fallicies that came across as desperate attempts to sever any connection with the pagan god.

Here is my take, this debate can never end so long as it’s an exoteric one. The fact is that the esoteric symbols ARE THE SAME.
The Logos brings about the same archetypal symbols throughout all cultures throughout all times.
Stop bickering over the fact that Jesus was surrounded by twelve disciples whereas Mithras was surrounded by twelve constellations. Christ was Crucified on a cross whereas Odin was nailed to the world tree. They are the same SYMBOLS. They have the same deeply profound esoteric meaning.
The Christ story was a myth before it was a reality and that’s just fine with me.

The Logos exists in the deep consciousness of all people. If resurrection wasn’t a profound and perfect metaphor it wouldn’t have the staying power that it does. I believe that Christ was a real man and the word of God but it doesn’t really matter if that is true or not. It’s the belief that counts. The profound mystical experience.
Look at it this way, if The Logos did take human form, don’t you think it would make the most of that life, living out situations that would affect and irradiate the psyches of people throughout the ages. To achieve spiritual enlightenment, the ego must be held up and die painfully. There is no better spiritual symbol for this than crucifixion.

While I would say that anyone who seeks a quid pro quo relationship with God is missing the point, Ian Punnet responds to the question ‘why do bad things happen to good people?’
Turns out spirituality has a physical benefit as well!

by Ian Punnett

MARYVILLE, Ill. (AP) – A pastor shot and killed during his Sunday sermon deflected the first of the gunman’s four rounds with a Bible, sending a confetti-like spray of paper into the air in a horrifying scene that congregants initially thought was a skit, police said.

The gunman strode down the aisle of the sprawling First Baptist Church shortly after 8 a.m. and briefly spoke with The Rev. Fred Winters, then pulled out a .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol and began firing until it jammed, Illinois State Police Director Larry Trent said. Churchgoers wrestled the gunman to the ground as he waved a knife, slashing himself and two other people, Trent said.

I’ve been thinking about that story a bit throughout the day because I too preached this morning, just a regular day in the pulpit and I’ve had people wander into services like that too. A priest friend of mine, Spenser, has had a thief on the run with a gun charge into a church when he was preaching but fortunately, everybody was OK.

Shootings in churches are a growing problem and there doesn’t appear to be any consistency on the motive of the shooters or the choices of victims. A person of faith might expect that God might protect worshippers at a time like that but we know that’s not true.

So, if God won’t stop the bullets intended for the faithful, something that’s questioned in the “Watchmen” movie, what good is God worship?

The latest scientific research into the benefits of a religious life is in and once more, I’m guessing, it will confound those that think only the illogical and the superstitious are people of faith.

According to the latest neuroscience research at Physorg.com:

Believing in God can help block anxiety and minimize stress, according to new University of Toronto research that shows distinct brain differences between believers and non-believers.

In two studies, participants performed a Stroop task – a well-known test of cognitive control – while hooked up to electrodes that measured their brain activity.

Compared to non-believers, the religious participants showed significantly less activity in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a portion of the brain that helps modify behavior by signaling when attention and control are needed, usually as a result of some anxiety-producing event like making a mistake. The stronger their religious zeal and the more they believed in God, the less their ACC fired in response to their own errors, and the fewer errors they made.

The study’s lead author says, “We found that religious people or even people who simply believe in the existence of God show significantly less brain activity in relation to their own errors. They’re much less anxious and feel less stressed when they have made an error.”

The findings show religious belief has a calming effect on its devotees, which makes them less likely to feel anxious about making errors or facing the unknown.

Lest you think this is some kind of fluke, the conclusion that being religious means being healthier is nothing new. Last year there was this piece at “LiveScience.com”:

There are many things you can do to increase your life expectancy: exercise, eat well, take your medication and … go to church.

A new study finds people who attend religious services weekly live longer.

Statistically, regular religious attendance will add 1.8-to-3.1 years to your life.

The surgeon who conducted that survey speculated that the social aspect of religion could play a role in the results: “There is something about being knit into the type of community that religious communities embody that has a way of mediating a positive health effect,” he told LiveScience. Perhaps, he said, being involved in a religion “can then decrease your level of stress in life or increase your ability to cope with stress.”

Another possibility: “Being in a religious community helps you make meaning out of your life,” the surgeon/researcher suggested.

Which is just like I’ve always said: “The meaning of life is living a life full of meaning.” People living meaningful lives are usually too busy to be depressed. This has always been a conclusion about people of faith that goes back a few years:

Jan. 23, 2005 — ABCNews

Is there a secret weapon against depression? Research suggests it might be religion. Studies show that people who practice some sort of religion are happier and less stressed out than those who don’t.

Those findings come as no surprise to Dr. Harold Koenig, a psychologist and co-director of the Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health at Duke University, who says there are a number of factors that contribute to religious people being happier.

“Generally, religious people have a positive view of the world,” said Koenig. “They believe they are here for a reason. They see a purpose and a meaning in their life and have hope.”

Of course, having a sense of purpose doesn’t make people of faith bullet-proof or put a forcefield around them that keeps out life’s hassles, crisis or disappointments. It’s just having a sense of purpose gives you a horizon line to fly by:

Religious people have more self-control than their less religious counterparts, leading to lower rates of substance abuse, better school achievement, better health behaviors, less depression, and longer lives, says University of Miami professor of Psychology, Michael McCullough.

McCullough’s new meta-study, appearing in the journal Psychological Bulletin, posits that self-control is critical for success in life, and religious people have more self-control than do their less religious counterparts. Thus, religious people may be better at pursuing and achieving long-term goals that are important to them. (Science-A-Go-Go)

So, not to fine a point on it, but in response to those who love to make it seem that believing in the Divine is akin to believing in the tooth fairy, I say: What’s so illogical or superstitious about living a longer, better, healthier, happier life? Especially when faith in God is such a broad concept–as witnessed by the graphic novel and movie “Watchmen” where the character of Dr. Manhattan is the embodiment of the intersection between science and religion. Cool story on that at “Newsarama”:

Among all the characters populating the Watchmen film, the glowing, blue figure of Dr. Manhattan stands out as a god-like being that is seemingly beyond comprehension.

Yet when filmmakers approached the character, it was essential to comprehend as much as possible about Dr. Manhattan and his strange powers. So they enlisted the help of James Kakalios, a physics professor at the University of Minnesota who wrote the book, The Physics of Superheroes.

“Most of [Dr. Manhattan's] powers, though not all, have some quantum mechanical aspect to them,” Kakalios explained.

“And just like Dr. Manhattan, most quantum physicists have really hot girlfriends and walk around without pants on . . . “

Yeah, he didn’t actually say that last part–but you know he wished he could!

Plato says here that blindness has two forms -  too much light is just as bad as no light at all. His point is that this applies to the consciousness as well; Ignorance has no perspective of the whole but to know all things at once is to lose individual perspective.

Plato warns us not to condemn misunderstanding too quickly as the confused may be coming from a higher understanding. The conclusion you see as black and white could, in fact, have many gray elements.

But there is more to this. With this statement, Plato not only lays bare the human condition (veiled awareness) but also gets to the heart of a fundamental question – Did the consciousness of man evolve independently? And if so, what does that mean?

If humanity truly did randomly evolve out of chaos then consciousness is some cosmic fluke. Awareness is born from absolute darkness and our ‘eyes’ are adjusting to the light of understanding.

If, however, we are “created in God’s image” our consciousness is a reflection of some great platonic ideal (Purusha, Adam Kadmon, Anthropos, Insan-i Kamil). Birth into this world was a darkening of absoulute consciousness, a forced individuation. Learning, then,  is a limited reacquisition of the absolute awareness.

I would say this; the mere existence of consciousness is so amazing in and of itself that it doesn’t matter either way. Even if there originally was no God, the random occurrence of consciousness has created Him. God is consciousness. And if the chicken came before the egg, so be it.

But if Time and space are removed from the equation what does it matter anyway? Time and space are concepts dwarfed by the existence of consciousness; actual, vital consciousness. The when and where are irrelevant. Consciousness has existed and therefore is.

Plato’s theory of forms holds that universals exist independently of particulars and it is the universals, not the particulars, that are the ultimate Truth. Thus, if a conscious mind exists, anywhere at any time, then a higher, absolute consciousness exists and is the ultimate reality.

The Hindus believe that whenever great evil spreads throughout the earth, the Supreme Being incarnates in human form.

Jesus Christ was exactly such an incarnation. Christ is the most relevant avatar of this day and age but it is mistake to discount others and focus on him alone. God has manifested himself countless times and will continue to do so as long as the human race exists.

Compare the similarities between the teachings of Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita and that of Christ in the New Testament and tell me that there is not some overlying principle here:

• I am the beginning, the middle, and the end (BG 10:20)
• I am the Alpha and the Omega, who is, was and ever shall be (Rev. 1:8)

• I envy no man, nor am I partial to anyone; I am equal to all (BG 9:29)
• God does not show favoritism (Rom. 2:11)
• He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous (Matt. 5:45)

• one who counts himself equal to friends and enemies alike is very dear to me (BG 12:18)
• Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them who persecute you (Matt. 5:44)

• those who are wise lament neither for the living nor the dead (BG 2:11)
• Follow me and allow the dead bury their own dead (Matt. 8:22 )

• If one is thus situated even at the hour of death, one can enter into the kingdom of God. (BG 2:72)
• I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise (Luke 23:43)

• By human calculation, a thousand ages taken together is the duration of Brahma’s one day (BG 8:17)
• With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. (2 Peter 3:8)

These few similarities only scratch the surface of the near identical teachings of Krishna and Jesus – both revered as human manifestations of the Supreme Being.

but rests

in lucent meditation.

No need for the nightly defrag.

The sense maker.

The reassimilation of sanity.

To undo the day’s damage.

He reflects the cosmos

and lives in peace.

The isotonic soul.