Continue reading...

Lost in translation – English and the material world vs the concept of anādi Posted in: Divinity, What are we doing here?

Within the Vaishnava tradition, the conditioning of the souls in the material world is said to be anādi – beginningless. If English speakers wish to understand the finer points of the Sanskrit word anādi, there are probably a number of English words they should steer clear of, for example …

  • forget – because the word infers previously known
  • when – because the word infers something happened at some point in time, and before that point it had not happened
  • manifest – because the word infers previously unmanifest
  • fallen – because the word infers previously not fallen

Why might clear understanding of anādi be important? …

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...

Siddhartha (novel) Posted in: Books

Siddhartha: An Indian novel is a 1922 novel by Hermann Hesse that deals with the spiritual journey of self-discovery of a man named Siddhartha during the time of the Gautama Buddha.

Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha follows the spiritual journey of Siddhartha, a young man seeking enlightenment. Rejecting wealth, status, and rigid teachings, he explores various paths, ultimately finding wisdom in life’s experiences and the unity of all things.

Continue reading
Continue reading...

The Parades (movie) Posted in: Films

The Parades

Minako waking up on a rubble-strewn beach. As she searches for her son, Ryo, she stumbles upon an assorted group, including a young man named Akira, former yakuza Shori, and ex-film producer Michael. She soon realizes the shocking truth that she has died. Her new companions are also stuck between worlds, unable to move on due to unfinished business with the living.

Continue reading
Continue reading...

Yesterday’s Children (movie) Posted in: Films

Yesterday’s Children

Jenny Cole lives with her husband and son in middle America. She is pregnant and starts to have very vivid dreams about a small city that has a big church. She starts talking to her mother about it and her mother shows her some drawings she made when she was a child. To her amazement they are identical to the drawings from the dreams Jenny is now having.

Continue reading
Continue reading...

All Hallows’ Eve (novel) Posted in: Books

All Hallows’ Eve is the last of the seven novels of the supernatural written by Charles Williams.

Charles Williams had a genius for choosing strange and exciting themes for his novels and making them believable and profoundly suggestive of spiritual truths. All Hallows’ Eve is the story of a man and woman whose love was so great it could bridge the gap of death; of evil so terrible as to be unmentionable, of a vision so beautiful it must be true.

Continue reading
Continue reading...

Abortion Debate – First Principles Posted in: Pro Life, Social

In my opinion this most important of topics must not be hijacked by religious dogma or women’s rights issues. Views on all sides of such things are passionate, fiercely defended, and for me, paradoxically, they simply cloud and distract.

Instead I suggest invested parties step back … way back … and review their personal convictions about who/what we are, and what life is? …

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