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? …

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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. …

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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. …

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Life on Earth – like a wonderful vacation? Posted in: What are we doing here?

In pondering my own mortality, and in particular the temporary nature of life on Earth, I stumbled into a comparing of my life here with the taking of a vacation.

That a vacation is temporary is not normally perceived as a problem. And that a holiday is not forever is not actually thought of as an impediment to enjoyment of the holiday. …

Precious Time (song lyric with analysis) Posted in: What are we doing here?

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. …

My Part Of Me (song lyric with analysis) Posted in: One And Different, What are we doing here?

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 🙂

Free listen/download of song at
http://www.songsofdave.com/song-details.php?id=262

Verse 1
So if you want me
Know where to look
Find my number
It’s in the book

‘So’ to convey this is not the beginning of the dialogue, ‘Know’ intended as both suggestion and acknowledgement. …

Let’s Use The Correct Word Posted in: What are we doing here?

I am not dismisive of being in ‘love’, or the associated euphoric feelings.

My proposal is that love is simply the wrong word. The correct word is ‘infatuation’. Sorry … I know it doesn’t sound so lofty 🙂

And that love is not a feeling or state of being … rather a giving; a caring; a doing … always a conscious choice. …

Little To Do With Spiritual Awareness Posted in: What are we doing here?

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? …

The Right Questions Posted in: Divine Expression, What are we doing here?

Assuming our divinity, it doesn’t seem logical to me that self realisation should be a mysterious process. A process of uncertainty, a process requiring faith/belief in something not known to be true. Not known if we are honest 😉

Neither does it seem reasonable to me that we could be surrounded by universal laws that if transgressed reward punishment regardless of those laws being known or not to us. …

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

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?

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

Life on Earth – like a wonderful vacation? Posted in: What are we doing here?

Planet Earth Posted in: Social, What are we doing here?

Precious Time (song lyric with analysis) Posted in: What are we doing here?

My Part Of Me (song lyric with analysis) Posted in: One And Different, What are we doing here?

Let’s Use The Correct Word Posted in: What are we doing here?

Little To Do With Spiritual Awareness Posted in: What are we doing here?

The Right Questions Posted in: Divine Expression, What are we doing here?