Tha is what I was trying to say, but you said it much simpler. But, what is the "Word of God" for you?
Authority Figures and Faith
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Tha is what I was trying to say, but you said it much simpler. But, what is the "Word of God" for you?
Now that I see you in this thread, I remember the words of Nietzche about this kind of stuff:
Nietzche puts humans in 3 metamorphoses of awareness: the Camel, the Lion and the Child.
We are born child, then we become camels, and the mayority of people stay in this stage. Camels only do what others tell them to do, they don´t have a personality of their own, they are part of the society, but they are not individuals.
Camels perceive other camels as teachers of the art of being camels. If a camel is able to carry more weight than other camels, then the other camels are going to respect him, and try to learn from him. Once in a while a camel is able to lift 2 times more weight than the others, so they give him a Masters degree, or a Novel Price on being the best camel.
The lion is a rebellion against the stage of the camel. The person becomes aware of this situation, and starts to disagreeing with everyone. The camels don´t like the lion, they feel threatened by them, althoug all the camels are able to achieve this state of Lion, they judge him, and most of the times kill him or prosecute them.
The last stage of the child is not merely a rebellion but a true revolution and might as well be described as enlightenment in eastern philosophy. So, according to Nietzsche the second childhood is the real one, and for Westerners this might even ring a “biblical bell”. In the stage of the child a person becomes utterly free from past and the future.
But Nietzche missed a spot, the second childhood is not like the first one. The second has self-discipline and is a conscient childhood. It is the same level of unification of the spirit, but the second time is done consciently.
This state, is when the Ego is mature enough so it can be dropped, the ego has to be fully developed in order to be able to dismiss it. Because only when you are truly aware of the ego, it just goes away.
So the stage of "child", is a representation of being conscient of the present, as the only reality, seing everything for the first time, enjoy every bit of it. Learn from everything, with fresh eyes.
So about this, Osho says:
I appreciate your words of advice, you have a great perspective on things.
Here is a man in the stage of a Lion: ............ Here is a man in the stage of a Child:
.................
Dude... what the fuck.
What part do you want me to explain? By your comment, I would say you are in the category of a camel. I may say, I don´t know in what category do I fit in, probably in the camel category as well, hoping to be a Lion, and eventually... blisfullness.
Well it is definitely Not the supposed gospel of judas. Or the plethora of other made up fakes doing the rounds these days.
The Word of God is the 66 books of the Bible.
All Praise The Ancient Of Days
mybreathyourlung
Registered Senior Member
I'm approaching this in context the most familiar way I know, which is relating it to church/ministers/pastors/whatever. I grew up in a Christian church, so while young, I didn't evaulate anyones validity, I just took it as fact and at face value. Now that I'm older, I base someones validity and reliability more or less on the way they're able to efficiently argue their point. For example, if someone is trying to teach me something and their answers to my questions equate to "well, I'm not sure right now" or "it just is", I find it pretty obvious that their lesson is not worth being learned, and they're just regurgitating what they were taught. Sincerity also goes into it all too.
I determine what I find to be "correct" or "right" by what makes sense or is logical to me at the time, or if it's a matter of religion/faith, I go by the Bible, unless obvious logic prevails. Opinions change as you become aware of new information so I never assume I'm 100% right on all things so I just go with what evidence I'm aware of and bet on that.
Growing up I was taught all the typical Christian things, don't drink, don't smoke, no sex before marriage, homosexuality is bad, everything you read in the Bible is fact and literal etc... so for most of my life I agreed with all these things simply because I didn't know better. I was in a place in life where I had no reason to challenge any of these as I was protected and sheltered and safe.
Over time I became more aware that the things I was taught growing up was only to do just that, protect me. Even though the majority of it was lies, I can understand the need to instill that kind of blind fear/faith in a child who can't reason as an adult would in an adult world.
So I came to a point where I investigated all these things for myself. Relieving myself of all bias and prejudices I looked into everything that I was told was "bad" and went for the truth. I reasoned between my personal opinions, my faith, common sense, facts and figures, human decency and logic, and found that perfect middle. So to answer the last question, I separate my current thinking from my past thinking by making a clear choice to do so. And I expect my future self to look back on my current thinking and see a clear differnece then too.
Why?
Do you know how these 66 books came to be put together as "The Bible"?
On what grounds do you base your acceptance of their authority to have chosen these particular books over any of the others?
Yeap, you are correct, I think the living Word of the living God is inside each and every one of us. In the form of instinct, intelligence and intuition.
No "holly" book written by men is the word of God.
Very true! Especially when violent acts and actions are attributed to God. example: Orders to stone people to death or to wholesale slaughter people.
This is simply the ignorance of the ego at work.
I believe the best way to approach holy books and documents is to gather the spiritual message they contain and compare them to other religions/belief systems to see their commonality and then study numerous cases of Near Death Experiences...it all tied in nicely for me.
Very true! Especially when violent acts and actions are attributed to God. example: Orders to stone people to death or to wholesale slaughter people.
This is simply the ignorance of the ego at work.
I believe the best way to approach holy books and documents is to gather the spiritual message they contain and compare them to other religions/belief systems to see their commonality and then study numerous cases of Near Death Experiences...it all tied in nicely for me.
hehe, I think you are right, I would say Buddhism its a very good approach. Once you are familiar with Buddhism and Oriental philosophy, the Bible and Coran take a completly new meaning.
Hi WS.
I'm not that familiar with budhism, I'll look into it... but my studies so far of the ancient Egyptians and their belief system, Neterianism; allowed me to see the bible and all the abrahamic religions in a "new light".
Many monotheists fail to realize that at the core of their beliefs(egyptians) they did believe in one God ( the Neter) and all their pantheon of Gods and Goddesses simply represented various aspects of the Neter.
Yes, I´ve looked into Egyptology as well. It is pretty interesting stuff, Jesus could have been damn well educated by a priest of the Isis cult. I also think Jesus crucifixion is a parallel to the Egyptian Seb-Festival performed by all the pharaohs approximately at age 30. On which they died and were resurected on the 3º day with the help of their wife (representing Isis). Mary Magdalene ring any bells?
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M*W: I found this concept of the Egyptians also to be true. Even though I have a fair collection of ancient Egyptian religions, I could not find the word "Neter" in any of them, so I went to the Internet.
The ancient Egyptian word "Neter," is pronounced "Nee-cher" and is spelled "nTr."
From his translation of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, E.A. Wallis Budge defines "Neter" as "the great and supreme power which made earth, the heavens, the sea, the sky, men and women, animals, birds and creeping things, all that is and all that shall be." In other words, the principle force found in both the creation and the upkeep of the universe the Egyptians called "Neter."
E.A. Wallis Budge, Late keeper of Assyrian and Egyptian Antiquities, THE BOOK OF THE DEAD: The Papyrus of Ani by
Egyptian Antiquities in the British Museum [1895]
As I understand it, this is their word for "god" although it can also imply "worshipper of god."
Some good info MW...thanks!
Most of my reading has been by the author Muata Ashby, but I really need to read others research into this subject as well. Just so I have other perspectives on it.