Non-judgementalism Posted in: Freedom From Judgement

Many religions consider freedom from judgement of others a saintly quality. But how attainable is it for a person of faith? Especially when at the foundation of their existence are a number of huge personal judgements. For example

What I believe to be truth IS true (I judge it to be true)
My beliefs are not actually beliefs at all … they are knowns – revealed to me by God
I know a lot about God … certainly enough to know that others who disagree with me are wrong
The goal of life is prescribed by God

How is it possible to maintain such convictions, and at the same time whole heartedly celebrate the divinity and perfection of others – and especially when their life paths are opposed to your chiselled in stone truths? …

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Natural Talent – Reincarnation Posted in: Divine Expression

If you accept the idea of reincarnation, then you can easily explain the natural flare and talent people have for certain things … this is simply not the beginning of their cultivation, they are picking up from where left off in previous life.

Rather than becoming disheartened … I’m just no good at such and such (i.e. compared to someone else) … instead think ‘anything is possible if I choose it’ … those who I look up to are not at the beginning. …

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Why Me? vs. How Does It Serve Me? Posted in: One And Different, The Self Divine

Achintya-Bheda-Abheda is a school of Vedanta representing the philosophy of inconceivable one-ness and difference. In Sanskrit achintya means ‘inconceivable’, bheda translates as ‘difference’, and abheda translates as ‘non-difference’.
Achintya-Bheda-Abheda, as explained at Wikipedia

The big difficulty for me with this philosophy is how to overcome the inconceivable part. That there is a simultaneous one-ness and difference between/with God and everything (us included) that emanates from God. …

The Problem With Karma Posted in: God On Our Side, Suffering and an all-powerful benevolent God, The Self Divine

One often finds the sanskrit word karma translated as action or work. But sometimes, and especially in the western mind, people take it to mean reaction rather than action, or something subtle that binds one to the cycle of birth and death (samsara) — administered by some sort of unseen cosmic debt collecting task-force requiring balance in the universe be restored. …

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Abortion and the Bodily Concept of Life Posted in: The Self Divine

What if life is not something that comes about because a body in a womb has reached enough maturity to survive outside the womb? What if life exists even prior to conception? If this is true, how does it change the way we understand termination of pregnancy? Let us not cloud the discussion with religion. Let us neither cloud with rape, nor liberation and equal rights for women. …

Everything flows from desire Posted in: Divine Expression

At least this idea feels compatible with the notion of self-divinity. Compatible in the sense that there be no out of bounds, no area that cannot be explored, no experience that cannot to sought. Everyone at all times is simply expressing their divine. Contributing automatically to the completeness of God. Perfectly. And regardless of judgement imposition of worthy vs. unworthy desire choices. …

How is it perfect now? Posted in: Perfection in Seeming Imperfection

If God exists, and God is perfect, is it not then reasonable to suggest that everything emanating from God, us and our lives included, is also perfect?

But who amongst us is seeing their lives and world around us as perfect?

If fact, some say the material world is imperfect. Flawed. A place of suffering, a struggle for existence, a place of birth, death, old-age and disease. …

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Forgiver In The Rough Posted in: Aggressor-Victim

Notwithstanding the pain / horror of the experience, existence of a victim for me is a major philosophical problem.

My song Forgiver In The Rough lays bare my struggle with this.

My problem begins with my conviction that not a blade of grass moves without the sanction of God. The all powerful and benevolent God

If this is true then the idea that the victim is purely a random recipient of adversity, with no cause beyond their being at the wrong place at the wrong time, is obviously unacceptable.

The Fallacy of Perceived Truth Posted in: Belief and Truth, God On Our Side

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. …

You Can’t Say No To God Posted in: Aggressor-Victim

You can’t say no to God. At least not if you subscribe to the traditional notion of God. You cannot say that God can’t have something God wants. After all, what sort of God would God be if some things are out of bounds? Forbidden. Where would be the divinity in that?

But what about us? What if our not being God does not mean we have lost our divinity? …

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