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The Different Names of "God"

Thalassa

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Clearly we understand that different religions have different names for what is commonly referred to as God, and that some religions don't even name a god, but may say that the source of all life is the universe or the Tao (the Tao is not a god, and in religious - rather than philosophical - Taoism, all of the gods came from the Tao, just as all things do).

Though the term New Age is commonly derided as having a shaky philosophical basis, as being flaky or silly, something faddish or kooky that hippies, hipsters, and neo-pagans indulge in...isn't it possible that the New Age actually stands for something that is actually powerful and transcendent, something that is actually quite spiritually solid that seeks an individual spiritual path that may have the heightened consciousness to recognize the similarity in multiple faiths?

For example, I do not belong to ISKCON (in case anyone was curious from my avatar and tag line) but I have noticed that I have a deep, abiding sense of belonging in yoga studios that happen to have a nod toward Bhakti, kirtan, and/or some form of Krishna consciousness. How can this be? I was never in attendance at one of their special feasts or meetings, and my intellectual knowledge of ISKCON mainly is reliant upon memories of jokes my uncle told about handing out flowers at the airport, like it was some silly cult. I still have no plans to "join."

But I'm fascinated by the fact that I enjoy kirtan so much, and that I just HAPPENED to feel the most comfortable in another city at a Bhakti studio, and it was the third yoga studio in that city I had sampled, while my regular studio for practice has kirtan and other really mild (though not at all exclusive) krishna consciousness elements (no meat allowed in the studio, kirtan meetings once per month, japa beads sold in the front office).

These studios are where I feel most "at home" and its completely natural. I was reading about George Harrison and his belief in the Hare Krishna mantra, and how no intellectual knowledge is required of it for it to work as an enlightening meditation to connect one with the God consciousness.

It's like how I've always felt very moved and spiritual inside Catholic cathedrals though I never officially converted to that faith; I was actually last officially a member of a Lutheran church, which is Catholic-like but still protestant, and I was raised in a more conservative evangelical-style (but a very mild, very reserved and understated form of it) protestant environment.

Do you think its possible we can just be attuned to a certain level of consciousness, even if we don't intellectually prescribe to a certain format of a particular faith?

It's like how Buddhists believe there are many paths to nirvana.

Eh?
 

Phoenix

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I don't know if this is entirely related to the topic at hand, but I wanted to sort of express my own views towards what I think "God" is and why there are so many different names for what is clearly supernatural.

If I ever did believe in a "God" anymore, then it would most likely be tilted slightly towards Deism - however, given recent even further advancements in science, even Deism seems almost out-dated to me.

That said, I will admit that I personally suffer from a "desire to have faith in a personal god" versus "faith itself is the path towards belief in the supernatural and therefore closing up of the mind to the natural and the physical" conflict.

I have often wondered what sort of minds would develop if they were never introduced to ideas like the supernatural whatsoever. In essence, are we inherently pre-disposed to having faith in some sort of supernatural being, ideas, or philosophies as ways of explaining phenomena? Or do we end up resorting to things like "spirituality" and "supernatural explanations" because we currently lack the knowledge to explain something.

One question: Is "God" the term for our lack of knowledge about the natural and physical?
 

Thalassa

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No. That's not what this thread is about. If you want to go have one of these Intertardz about whether or not there is even such a thing, then please go elsewhere. I am tired of that shit.

Of course, now about 20 atheists or agnostics will swarm the thread, just because they're immature and as evangelical as any fundamentalist Christian.

I really wish someone would actually think about what I really wrote. I wonder if this will even occur.
 

Thalassa

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I don't know if this is entirely related to the topic at hand, but I wanted to sort of express my own views towards what I think "God" is and why there are so many different names for what is clearly supernatural.

If I ever did believe in a "God" anymore, then it would most likely be tilted slightly towards Deism - however, given recent even further advancements in science, even Deism seems almost out-dated to me.

That said, I will admit that I personally suffer from a "desire to have faith in a personal god" versus "faith itself is the path towards belief in the supernatural and therefore closing up of the mind to the natural and the physical" conflict.

I have often wondered what sort of minds would develop if they were never introduced to ideas like the supernatural whatsoever. In essence, are we inherently pre-disposed to having faith in some sort of supernatural being, ideas, or philosophies as ways of explaining phenomena? Or do we end up resorting to things like "spirituality" and "supernatural explanations" because we currently lack the knowledge to explain something.

One question: Is "God" the term for our lack of knowledge about the natural and physical?

Oh by the way, religion and spirituality was harshly punished in the Soviet Union for about 75 years and it wasn't destroyed. Russia and surrounding countries are full of Orthodox Christian, Muslims, varying forms of Russian paganism, and now even Hare Krishnas.

So no. Just no.

No, raising people without any idea of the supernatural or enforcing it doesn't work. It doesn't work any more than forcing someone to be Catholic guarantees that they'll agree to be Catholic for their entire lives, many do not.

Madeline Muray O'Hare's son become a preacher, and she was the mouthpiece for American Atheists.
 

Qlip

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Absolutely, it's just never going to be mainstream. People are tribalists, we break into little identifiable groups and stake out our territory and our gods. My personal beliefs are heavily informed by Mysticism, and you quickly learn that all forms of mysticism access the same deep spiritual parts of the human experience, and they resemble each other very strongly. They also are often misunderstood twisted and often vilified by the traditions they come out of.. Kaballah, Sufiism, etc.

You have to maintain a sort of conscientious and inclusiveness that takes work, unlike divisiveness.
 

skylights

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Yeah, I feel a certain connection to Sufism and the understanding of the divine as the "Beloved", even though I don't subscribe to any particular religion and I generally label myself an agnostic when asked. There's that resonation, universe, all-connected, void, at-one-with-everything, feeling that I get when I go into spiritual places, or in sivasana after a yoga session, or read Sufi writing, or even just walking the beach late at night with the stars and the ocean both stretching into infinity. I had a humanities class once where our professor asked us to do a project on the "sublime", and that's pretty much what I concluded, that my understanding of the "sublime" is when I feel connection to the concept of infinity. I remember reading an article once suggesting that there's a part of our frontbrain processes that triggers "spiritual" feelings, and the article ended by asking if that meant spirituality was just a mishap of evolution, or maybe that's just the common way humans tend to access those feelings, and those feelings are legitimate of their own accord.

Phoenix said:
One question: Is "God" the term for our lack of knowledge about the natural and physical?

Yes, often, but I think it also goes deeper into God being a term to shortcut to our lack of understanding of the nature of our existence and the deep need to create a reason and a purpose for our lives. Trying to place oneself in a greater context is a means of reconciling that... even if we were raised in a society with no emphasis on the supernatural, I think that deep wondering would still exist, because it's really the ultimate open-ended question.

I tend to think that humans share some deep level of yearning and satisfaction that often manifests itself as spirituality, or deep love, or zeal for some cause, or passionate expressiveness, or losing oneself in sensation, or daring physical pursuit, or intense learning, or any other number of forms of expression of breaking beyond the self to engage in something that feels like "more". Where it comes from, or why it exists, I have no idea, but I feel like there's a good likelihood it means that there is something more than what we know right now. On a practical level, I know that it refreshes us, renews us, gathers us, and energizes us. Even if ultimately there is no "beyond", I think there's something important or at the very least positive about tapping into that sort of feeling, and that sort of consciousness. It opens us up and invites acceptance of the potential existence of things we don't understand, respect for the great mysteries of life, the questions that bind us.
 

Phoenix

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Oh by the way, religion and spirituality was harshly punished in the Soviet Union for about 75 years and it wasn't destroyed. Russia and surrounding countries are full of Orthodox Christian, Muslims, varying forms of Russian paganism, and now even Hare Krishnas.

Honestly, that just means that people just stuck to their faith.

There's nothing wrong with having blind faith in something and continuing to stick to it through persecution.

Atheists too go through their share of persecution in countries which are heavily dominated by the Abrahamic religions (I'm not including other religions because I personally haven't come across any evidence to support that other religions have acted violently towards non-believers). But that by itself doesn't necessarily mean that Atheists are any more right than theists.

The fact that a governmental policy that persecuted religions and that did not stop people from believing isn't evidence that the supernatural exists - it's just evidence that people won't stop believing what they want to believe in regardless of the conditions they are put through. In fact, many of the religions actually take their persecution as a further proof that their beliefs are right because they are being persecuted as it's a recurrent theme in at least the Abrahamic religions.

No, raising people without any idea of the supernatural or enforcing it doesn't work. It doesn't work any more than forcing someone to be Catholic guarantees that they'll agree to be Catholic for their entire lives, many do not.

That I agree with.

Madeline Muray O'Hare's son become a preacher, and she was the mouthpiece for American Atheists.

I suppose society won out in the end. But it does show as I mentioned that people may indeed be inherently pre-disposed to wanting to believe in the supernatural.
 

Thalassa

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Honestly, that just means that people just stuck to their faith.

There's nothing wrong with having blind faith in something and continuing to stick to it through persecution.

Atheists too go through their share of persecution in countries which are heavily dominated by the Abrahamic religions (I'm not including other religions because I personally haven't come across any evidence to support that other religions have acted violently towards non-believers). But that by itself doesn't necessarily mean that Atheists are any more right than theists.

The fact that a governmental policy that persecuted religions and that did not stop people from believing isn't evidence that the supernatural exists - it's just evidence that people won't stop believing what they want to believe in regardless of the conditions they are put through. In fact, many of the religions actually take their persecution as a further proof that their beliefs are right because they are being persecuted as it's a recurrent theme in at least the Abrahamic religions.



That I agree with.



I suppose society won out in the end. But it does show as I mentioned that people may indeed be inherently pre-disposed to wanting to believe in the supernatural.

I don't think you get what religion is. Most people with their Western pseudo-scientific reasoning (and yes, I think that evangelical atheists ...as opposed to open-minded agnostics...aren't even real scientists, they presume too much based on lack of evidence and have monstrously transformed lack of belief into a belief system, somehow) don't see to understand that the entire point is aligning your consciousness, via faith, to the divine.

It's a conscious choice, and a state of mind. And it can be proven over and over again what incredible mind-body alignment people can have via prayer and meditation.

It's like you don't get it, because you're not even looking in the right place, for the right thing. You're looking for evidence of a giant old man in sandals, and not seeing that the Tao or God or All That Is...is everywhere, all around you, in every living thing, permeating existence.

That's why I don't want to debate it. It's pointless to use the methodology of Western debate and divisiveness to perceive the whole.
 

Thalassa

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Yeah, I feel a certain connection to Sufism and the understanding of the divine as the "Beloved", even though I don't subscribe to any particular religion and I generally label myself an agnostic when asked. There's that resonation, universe, all-connected, void, at-one-with-everything, feeling that I get when I go into spiritual places, or in sivasana after a yoga session, or read Sufi writing, or even just walking the beach late at night with the stars and the ocean both stretching into infinity. I had a humanities class once where our professor asked us to do a project on the "sublime", and that's pretty much what I concluded, that my understanding of the "sublime" is when I feel connection to the concept of infinity. I remember reading an article once suggesting that there's a part of our frontbrain processes that triggers "spiritual" feelings, and the article ended by asking if that meant spirituality was just a mishap of evolution, or maybe that's just the common way humans tend to access those feelings, and those feelings are legitimate of their own accord.

But labeling as an accident of evolution is subscribing to the belief that just because scientists haven't proven it yet that it doesn't matter.

There's no proof that it isn't there FOR A VERY GOOD REASON and you touch on that in the second part of your post, that there's actually something very important in the human experience about experiencing that.

I've noticed that people who reject it entirely are often humanitarians, that they don't automatically become monstrously horrible people just because they reject the idea of the divine, but that many of them are bitter, cynical, depressed, unhappy, and see life as pointless, and see forms of life as less sacred.

Some of the happiest people in the world are poor yogis living in India, and Buddhist monks, and people like Mother Theresa who took a vow of poverty and devoted her life to being with the sick and the dying.

Some of the most miserable and angry and neurotic are often rich and famous.

Of course, rich and/or famous people CAN be happy...but I think it's often due to accomplishing some kind of spiritual wholeness in conjunction with their material life.

And poor people can be miserable, if they lack faith and hope and live a life of desperation.

It appears to me that human happiness and health seems highly contingent upon that part of the brain.

Some religions take an officially agnostic approach for the reason that you state, because even if it doesn't indicate a "god' per se, it's still clearly a way of life that brings maximum peace and happiness to yourself and other people.

If practiced in earnest, of course, and not just for show, or to fit in with society, or to scam money.

Religion can be twisted to ugly ends; true faith cannot.



Yes, often, but I think it also goes deeper into God being a term to shortcut to our lack of understanding of the nature of our existence and the deep need to create a reason and a purpose for our lives. Trying to place oneself in a greater context is a means of reconciling that... even if we were raised in a society with no emphasis on the supernatural, I think that deep wondering would still exist, because it's really the ultimate open-ended question.

I tend to think that humans share some deep level of yearning and satisfaction that often manifests itself as spirituality, or deep love, or zeal for some cause, or passionate expressiveness, or losing oneself in sensation, or daring physical pursuit, or intense learning, or any other number of forms of expression of breaking beyond the self to engage in something that feels like "more". Where it comes from, or why it exists, I have no idea, but I feel like there's a good likelihood it means that there is something more than what we know right now. On a practical level, I know that it refreshes us, renews us, gathers us, and energizes us. Even if ultimately there is no "beyond", I think there's something important or at the very least positive about tapping into that sort of feeling, and that sort of consciousness. It opens us up and invites acceptance of the potential existence of things we don't understand, respect for the great mysteries of life, the questions that bind us.
 

KDude

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I think the Bible (or Jewish Torah) offers a unique name. Much of society has been groomed to view it as a legalistic tradition, but it has much to offer on a metaphysical level too. When Moses asked the "Burning Bush" what the name of the god was that he should tell people that sent him, a voice replied.. "I am that I am. Tell them that 'I am' sent you." The compounded form is Yahweh, coming from the verb meaning "to be". I don't know how it happened, but somehow this mysterious figure became a mere "old man in the clouds", when the underlying thought is more abstract. The Yahwist Jews viewed this god as "being" itself. "Self-contained being" rather. Or the source of being. Eastern philosophy is full of these concepts too, but once you make a comparison, many Christians raised in the West find it distasteful to compare with other Asian traditions. They like their old man in the clouds version.
 

Coriolis

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Oh by the way, religion and spirituality was harshly punished in the Soviet Union for about 75 years and it wasn't destroyed. Russia and surrounding countries are full of Orthodox Christian, Muslims, varying forms of Russian paganism, and now even Hare Krishnas.
The Soviet Union had a religion in those 75 years - it was communism. The instincts and urges usually satisfied by religious observance were channeled by the state into party rituals and propaganda. Just look at the steady stream of people always lined up to view Lenin's mausoleum.

The thread title made me think you were interested in how different people/cultures/faiths view the divine, but your actual OP speaks more about levels of consciousness. Are these questions related in your understanding? I have given more thought so far to the first than the second.
 

Thalassa

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The Soviet Union had a religion in those 75 years - it was communism. The instincts and urges usually satisfied by religious observance were channeled by the state into party rituals and propaganda. Just look at the steady stream of people always lined up to view Lenin's mausoleum.

The thread title made me think you were interested in how different people/cultures/faiths view the divine, but your actual OP speaks more about levels of consciousness. Are these questions related in your understanding? I have given more thought so far to the first than the second.

I am speaking in levels of consciousness, because I think that's what awareness of God or whatever-you-shall-call-it IS. All That Is. The Way. Tao. I think people with true faith experience this, and it's something that stands outside of cultural religion, or being religious for cultural or even twisted reasons.

Like I said in my OP, I'm not about to join ISKCON. I think the actual organization requires too much exclusivity which is why some people regard it as a cult. Extreme exclusivity or over-zealous focus on ritual tends to be a warning sign of a cult, as well as the fact that sometimes in group living situations (such as the priesthood in Catholic churches or ISKCON membership, especially living in/with ISKCON) sexuality is so overly tightly controlled by the religion, that it can get misguided into disgusting things like pederasty, degradation of women etc.

HOWEVER...the original IDEAS behind ISKCON are very pure. One can be rich or poor, man or woman, no class or caste is recognized, it reminds a lot of the New Testament teachings of Jesus. And the Hare Krishna as a meditation mantra is very inspiring, and kirtan is a wonderful experience.

The place where I frequent most for yoga incorporates some of this loosely with Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism and other teachings, depending on which teacher you see in the studio. One teacher, one of the owners, in particular does kirtan sessions, and incorporates this into his classes (chanting, music) as well.

I see so much overlap in these "purer" idea forms behind religious organizations that I think there is a common truth. And I think that is why I can feel this spiritual experience where there is true devotion to God or bhakti or true faith or genuine experience of spirituality.

And I only feel comfortable in yoga studios which have this element of spirituality, after trying out a few studios. It's not enough for me to be a friendly, liberal studio. And I have come to detest "power yoga" in any form, though it's certainly a good workout for some people, and can lead some others into more spiritual practices of yoga like I was.

Allah, Buddah, Yaweh, Krishna....did you know Krishna and Christ/Christos mean the same thing? And weirdly enough the stories have some interesting overlaps.
 

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I think God is a grand designer of sorts, a mind that programs existence on its many levels, but I think god (lower-case g) is a much higher level of development we can all apsire towards on our journeys of expansion into the infinite. The quest knows no ends.

Quantum theory implies the existence of an all-omnipresent living mind, as there needs to be something that sees the creation for it to take shape. Something needs to gaze upon the image for it to have its own absolute reality.

Perhaps with sufficent faith, if we really chase the paths ahead, then we will come to a super-natural point from where we can move mountains. Anything is possible!

If it is not true it is very well invented - that is one of my favorite quotes (Giordano Bruno). The world is a big place. We may find one day that all ideas have an immanence within reality on some level of manifestation. To create something that it cannot contain may be an incredulous invention. The box of barriers shall be broken asunder!

For the mundane aspects of existence, God may describe what can't currently be explained, but when it comes to dream development, going beyond the limits of our perceptions may bring to pass what naturalism would deem impossible. The annihilation of all limits draws nigh!

A broadened horizon makes for a much better and more meaningful voyage, and along the way, many treasures are yet to be discovered. Many new lands and explorations await us across the ocean.

Human experiences are limited by our sense perceptions, but if we tap into the deep recesses of the mind, the world will open and unfold before our eyes. A good sense of wonder is a fountain that springs forth worlds of all kinds, and as we merge with the source of it all, our minds will take flight. Our ascension is immanent!

Proper evidence used with false reasoning can lead to fables, though good fables can prove to be valuable metaphors in conceptualizing new designs. Even things that aren't present on our plane can give us their gifts.

I like the paradox of centering ourselves with the acentric vastness of this endless and infinite existence, but our own individual universe may have such a core from where we can derive strength and inspiration (Nikola Tesla's ideas were not all his own; many may have sprung from this source). We have yet to penetrate the secrets of this core.

Perhaps there could be a fusion of two concepts, the existence of a divine being living in an omniversal creation melted into one, because after all, life must exist under all conditions and phases of development. Evolution I believe can realize all ends of the spectrum, from humans and gods to God. All things conceivable could manifest.

Without taking up the sword of challenge, we will experience no triumphs in our cosmic arena; arguments are a forge for refining our ideas and developing their directions. If we are simply content with the current state of things, they will remain in their static state, incapable for change. Transformation is the way forward into the future.

The old man in the clouds perhaps has reached his most full and complete state of I am that I am, that is, he has attained self-mastery and found his own true self inside, taking his personal growth to the max. We each seek this light shining with all promise on our paths leading to the divine. Our ultimate destiny has yet to be realized, and it may be long in coming, but we draw ever closer.

Transcendental Will flows through us all and changes the world!
 

Thalassa

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I think God is a grand designer of sorts, a mind that programs existence on its many levels, but I think god (lower-case g) is a much higher level of development we can all apsire towards on our journeys of expansion into the infinite. The quest knows no ends.

I agree with this. The Self-realization (Higher Self with captial S, not selfish egoic self with little s) apparently is the state of realizing God is what is animating your brain, your body, the trees, the little animals...the Tao, basically. I finally GOT it because of Taoism, but once I got that, I was able to see how many of the other religions were saying basically the same thing, just in more distracting terms. Or maybe even poor translations or weird sectarian interpretations.


Quantum theory implies the existence of an all-omnipresent living mind, as there needs to be something that sees the creation for it to take shape. Something needs to gaze upon the image for it to have its own absolute reality.

Perhaps with sufficent faith, if we really chase the paths ahead, then we will come to a super-natural point from where we can move mountains. Anything is possible!

Well, when we have faith, we are not longer frightened or full of egoic falsehoods, and we realize how we are all interconnected and there is a plan and The Way is something we should accept, and once we do, we realize we don't even have a need to steal, lie, cheat, hurt others, etc. All things can be accomplished through acceptance and faith.

It's why ambition is a sin. I never understand that. I never understood so much the Christian Bible until I "got it" through more esoteric, idea based Eastern practices.

It's not that it's wrong to want to accomplish things or learn to build things, it's wrong to live in a state of perpetual stress and striving; it makes us SICK. Look at the U.S. full of people who don't sleep enough, anxious, tired, stressed-out, depressed, lonely people...because they are so addicted to striving. They are so weighed down by their possessions.

It's not wrong to have money or possessions, but it's sick to be controlled by them to the point that we never experience gratitude for what we have, or realize how much we have, and take time to simply be and love others, and not be constantly striving, shopping, trying to acquire more stuff, be better than others.

It all makes so much sense to me now. It's why fundies think we're living in Satanic times. From a certain interpretation, we are. Of course, I tend to follow religious philosophies who don't believe in Satan incarnate, but rather understand that over-fixation on ego actually leads to human misery.


If it is not true it is very well invented - that is one of my favorite quotes (Giordano Bruno). The world is a big place. We may find one day that all ideas have an immanence within reality on some level of manifestation. To create something that it cannot contain may be an incredulous invention. The box of barriers shall be broken asunder!

For the mundane aspects of existence, God may describe what can't currently be explained, but when it comes to dream development, going beyond the limits of our perceptions may bring to pass what naturalism would deem impossible. The annihilation of all limits draws nigh!

Have you considered ENTP as a type?

A broadened horizon makes for a much better and more meaningful voyage, and along the way, many treasures are yet to be discovered. Many new lands and explorations await us across the ocean.

Human experiences are limited by our sense perceptions, but if we tap into the deep recesses of the mind, the world will open and unfold before our eyes. A good sense of wonder is a fountain that springs forth worlds of all kinds, and as we merge with the source of it all, our minds will take flight. Our ascension is immanent!

Proper evidence used with false reasoning can lead to fables, though good fables can prove to be valuable metaphors in conceptualizing new designs. Even things that aren't present on our plane can give us their gifts.

I like the paradox of centering ourselves with the acentric vastness of this endless and infinite existence, but our own individual universe may have such a core from where we can derive strength and inspiration (Nikola Tesla's ideas were not all his own; many may have sprung from this source). We have yet to penetrate the secrets of this core.

Perhaps there could be a fusion of two concepts, the existence of a divine being living in an omniversal creation melted into one, because after all, life must exist under all conditions and phases of development. Evolution I believe can realize all ends of the spectrum, from humans and gods to God. All things conceivable could manifest.

Without taking up the sword of challenge, we will experience no triumphs in our cosmic arena; arguments are a forge for refining our ideas and developing their directions. If we are simply content with the current state of things, they will remain in their static state, incapable for change. Transformation is the way forward into the future.

The old man in the clouds perhaps has reached his most full and complete state of I am that I am, that is, he has attained self-mastery and found his own true self inside, taking his personal growth to the max. We each seek this light shining with all promise on our paths leading to the divine. Our ultimate destiny has yet to be realized, and it may be long in coming, but we draw ever closer.

Transcendental Will flows through us all and changes the world!

I agree that the mythology of the old man in the clouds is similar to Hindus or Buddhists having a guru, a human manifestation with a face of god-presence, showing us the state of enlightenment, that a person can acheive enlightenment, that God isn't a far away thing, and that God with a face is the embodiment of enlightenment.

Or something.

I also started to "get" the celibacy thing: when people have a high level of enlightenment or god-consciousness and they don't focus it into a romantic partner or creating new people, instead of focusing that energy into sex and family, they can love all people equally and non-sexually and achieve great acts of agape love for mankind because all of their god-creation sexual energy is directed into agape love for all, instead of for the spouse and creation/raising of children.

Of course, though, when a person has NOT attained true enlightenment or god-consciousness, and try to be celibate, they may find themselves commiting perversions and heinous acts in a misguided attempt to re-direct the natural bodily sexual impulse.

It's all starting to come together for me. It's really amazing. I've had some really amazing "flashes" of enlightenment and Self-realization lately. They last for a few minutes to an hour, I'm not saying I've achieved true enlightenment. I have no current plans to declare myself the Dalai Llama ha haha. I'm just seeing it in flashes. I'm getting "glimpses" of god-consciousness. And naturally, via meditation and yoga and prayer, I don't think drugs can help a person reach TRUE god-consciousness, things like LSD and ecstasy are sad, destructive attempts to mimic the god-consciousness.

Since I've being having these flashes, though, I now remember that I had them as a child. And maybe that's why Jesus says be like a little child in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. I guess kids are more aware of God than adults are, like adults forget or get jaded by the world. I recall having these experiences of simply being and experiencing this pure peace more frequently in my childhood, and then in my teens, and less so in adulthood: in adulthood they mainly seemed to occur only in certain times or places, like during sex with a person I love or on the beach at night. Now that I'm doing yoga and meditating, I'm starting to have longer-term and more frequent experiences in random places, like just sitting in a room alone or walking down the street, more like I did as a child.

God is everywhere. God is love. It's pretty amazing how we "forget."
 

Thalassa

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This song also makes more sense to me now. It seems like it almost has a humanitarian atheist message, but John Lennon and Yoko Ono were/are actually very spiritual people, and now it makes sense to me in the sense of spiritually saying we are all peacefully one, that heaven and hell are not "places" and that cultural religion may even divide people.

 

Mole

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Absolutely, it's just never going to be mainstream. People are tribalists, we break into little identifiable groups and stake out our territory and our gods. My personal beliefs are heavily informed by Mysticism, and you quickly learn that all forms of mysticism access the same deep spiritual parts of the human experience, and they resemble each other very strongly. They also are often misunderstood twisted and often vilified by the traditions they come out of.. Kaballah, Sufiism, etc.

You have to maintain a sort of conscientious and inclusiveness that takes work, unlike divisiveness.

Yes, it is extraordinary how similar mysticisms of quite different faiths are.
 

Mole

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In this whole world there are so many names of god,

The names of God collapse down to two: Mum and Dad.

As I write, Dad is the preferred name of God, but some of us have a sneaking preference for Mum.
 
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