Continue reading...

Self = Soul With A Body ≠ Body With Soul Posted in: The Self Divine

You are a soul with a body. Immediately I heard this idea, it made perfect sense, resonated as truth, and changed everything for me. But when I shared this – what was for me a profound revelation – I was surprised that most people rejected it out of hand. 40+ years later I still find this to be the case. Why does this explanation of self not appeal to so many? …

Continue reading
Continue reading...

Trouble is, if everything comes from God … Posted in: Perfection in Seeming Imperfection, Suffering and an all-powerful benevolent God, What are we doing here?

To tell someone who strongly feels they are suffering, and/or this world is very much a place of misery, that they are not in fact suffering at all, and not a fallen soul being punished for their sins, but a divine part of God eternally engaged in the beautiful divine lila (pastimes) of God is unlikely to resonate positively. Reality of suffering is so proven and real that such a idea is more likely lead to negative judgement about God. …

Continue reading
Continue reading...

God With Blinkers On Posted in: One And Different, The Self Divine

PET THEORY: Notwithstanding our difference, by dint of our simultaneous oneness we are God/Krishna (albeit with a small g/k) exploring/experiencing/expressing self with blinkers on. In so doing we all contribute our focused fascinations to the ever expanding completeness of God’s self-knowing. Consciously or unconsciously, believer or atheist, no matter. Being conscious, however, opens the door for love. In the Bhagavad-gita (9:27) Krishna encourages ‘everything you do, do as an offering to me’ as the means to awaken ones deeper self-awareness. …

Continue reading
Continue reading...

In Defence of Nitya-baddha Souls Posted in: Freedom From Judgement, Seeing the Divine, The Self Divine

For a westerner embracing the dharmic tradition, the concept of nitya-baddha (sanskrit) – often translated as ever-conditioned or eternally conditioned soul – is routinely confused with the idea of fallen soul prominent in Abrahamic religions. A fallen soul, in simple terms, being one who has rebelled against God, and has thus been cast out of / banished from the kingdom of God. …

Continue reading
Continue reading...

Perfect And Complete Posted in: Perfection in Seeming Imperfection

Premise:

God exists. God is perfect and complete. Everything that emanates from God is likewise perfect and complete. Us and this world included. Seeming imperfect/flaw points to misunderstanding of purpose.

How are we and this world perfect?

Possible Purpose:

  • We are all looking at God
  • We are all experiencing God
  • We are all attracted to some aspect or another of God
  • We are all appreciating some facet or another of God
  • All from our individual points of view
    • Sometimes through the lens of atheism
    • Sometimes through the lens of belief in the existence of a God-person
    • Sometimes through the lens of belief in the existence of God-impersonal
    • Through senses and minds appropriate to our current species of life birth
    • Flavoured by association with the modes of material nature
  • God can rightly claim our experiences as his experience by dint of us being his part and parcels
  • Our material situation blinkers and focuses our experiences adding further to their uniqueness
  • Fundamentally our lack omniscience opens the doors to a huge new range of appreciations of God that would otherwise remain out of reach to God (being consciously omniscient).
Continue reading
Continue reading...

Suffering By The Will Of God? Posted in: Aggressor-Victim, Suffering and an all-powerful benevolent God

That God is benevolent and completely in control, yet at the same time bad things happen in this world is a problem for logical and rational thinkers. I think. If we embrace any idea that artificially distances God from something he/she is absolutely in control of, i.e. to explain the suffering of this world without implicating God … as most religions tend to do in one form or another (law of karma, natural law, punishment for sin, our fault, the devil) … even though at the same time believing not a blade of grass moves without the sanction of God aren’t we deceiving ourselves and turning our backs on logical and rational thinking? …

Continue reading
Continue reading...

How are we all always serving God? Posted in: Divine Expression, One And Different, What are we doing here?

1. God chooses to taste and explore rasa.
Our life adventures, dark or light/conscious or unconscious regardless, contribute, albeit in a small way, to the completeness of that exploration. How? Our personal experiences of emotion/feeling, by dint of our enternal jiva individuality, together with our current lifetime tailored conditioning, have a uniqueness about them, and thus value because they add to the completeness of God’s exploration. …

Continue reading
Continue reading...

It’s not that I don’t believe in karma per se Posted in: Divine Expression, The Self Divine

When I say I don’t believe in Karma, it’s not that I don’t believe in karma per se, but I don’t believe in karma as reaction to thought and/or deed that one is obliged to accept. I find that sort of understanding fundamentally incompatible with the divinity of the soul in that this idea of karma is simply a thinly disguised version of against-my-will-obliged. …

Continue reading