We find it relatively easy to dismiss as false or deluded the truths of others … especially when they don’t tally with our own. We might consider them ridiculous, unbelievable, inconceivable, implausible, or even insane. No more thought required.
But what if the same processes apply to us that make such ‘wrong’ truths acceptable, or even absolute, to others? In other words, our finding something believable – real – true, no matter how implausible to another, is arrived at in fundamentally the same way as theirs is. … read more
According to Vedic thought, planet Earth is located in the midway planetary system (Bhu-loka), and our present time is near the beginning of Kali Yuga, the last of the four cyclic ages.
Planet Earth, as a middle level planet, is not typically a place where enlightened beings tend to take birth. Compared to the other three yugas, Kali Yuga is characterised as the age of least enlightenment. … read more
If everything is simply the imaginings and role-plays of God, then surely everything is contrived: God is pretending – contriving – not to be god for the sake of achieving some specific experience and enjoyment?
What we generally mean by contrived is something we consider to be concocted for a less worthy objective. But is not worthiness of objective a subjective (contrived) judgement? … read more
Sometimes adult society is dismissive of the emotional experience of children and/or younger people. Take the expression ‘puppy love’ for example … an adult judgement that prepubescent romantic love is not real, or at least is in some way inferior to the adult counterpart.
I suggest, however, that compared to an adult, there is no reason to believe the ability to feel emotion is in anyway restricted by the soul wearing the mind/intellect/life experience/maturity of a child. … read more
The lyric of this song is a bit of a rant against what I consider the dumbed-down values and social expectations placed upon us by government/corporations in 2012 UK society (perhaps this is a global trend?) – together with my observation that generations presently growing up do not realise that just a few decades ago ideas like sending small babies to daycare so mum can hurry back to the work place, or the necessity of both partners working just to make ends meet would have seemed outrageous. … read more
The lyric of my song is an imagined conversation between God and a soul, loosely based on the two-bird-in-a-tree analogy found in the Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad … but presented strictly in terms of my own understanding 🙂
By pretending to be someone else, we don’t become someone else. Like an actor on the stage, absorbed in character as they may be, remains the same person. And they go home to their real life – their family and friends – after the show (so-called real life).
By temporarily forgetting who I am, that I might be fully absorbed in the role I am playing, that I might deliver a performance of a life time, that I might enjoy such a performance, I do not become someone else. … read more
In my opinion religion and faith often have very little to do with spiritual awareness. In most cases they have more to do with devotion, love, dependency, belonging, etc.
I am certainly not suggesting such things are not wonderful and desireable, but just that they don’t automatically translate to spiritual awareness. And in some cases produce just the opposite!
What do I mean by spiritual awareness? … read more
I propose that we (the soul/jiva) are simultaneously one and different from God. In other words we ARE God and we ARE NOT God. And though these two positions seem contradictory, both are true at the same time.
Confusing, yes.
Inconceiveable, yes.
So an experiment:
Don the God hat for a moment. Forget you are NOT God.
Being God, I suggest you would likely ask questions along the lines …
