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Reply to Mario

Mario:

In the beginning I worked on a dictionary. This happened long before any timelines and I want to explain what I mean by that. When I put together the dictionary it wasn't only English. I gathered words from Latin, Greek, German, French, Old Norse, Irish, Arabic, Aramaic, Hebrew, Egyptian, Hindu, Sanskrit, Tibetan, Chinese, Polynesian, Hawiian, South American, Mayan, Native American, Eskimo, and African, etc. I put these words next to one another according to an alphabetical order consisting of ten basic sounds. (The same number as in the language of arithmetic. The same number as the major planets - including the sun - in our solar system.). In this way, words that sound similar appear in closer vicinity to one another no matter what the language they came from.

  I collected and compiled definitions for every letter in the Greek, Hebrew, and Runic alphabets. I collected words and definitions for the twenty different Mayan day names, the sixty-four I Ching hexagrams, and at least one hundred basic Chinese pictograms/ideograms. I went through an encyclopedia of Bible words and collected Hebrew and Greek words from the Old and New Testaments. I went about and included names and definitions for popular Gods and Goddesses throughout various world mythologies. Including (but not limited to) Sumerian, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, German, and Norse. My greatest interest became ancient history as I went about searching for words from the oldest languages that I could find. Inevitably, I looked at a number of different religions and/or names for God. I looked not only at definitions for different words, but I looked at their individual letters. I looked at each sound and contemplated popular apparent historical themes for each one based on a collection of more than ten thousand words. Although I was still adding words to the dictionary at the same time, my first timeline followed the majority of it.

  I feel that looking at the keeping of timelines in this context will better convey my own unique experience. I wanted a reference for the time periods in which certain words were born, lived, changed form and meaning, and translated. I wanted to illustrate how so many words were used throughout time. A detraction to this project happened when I tried to fill a timeline with data from about 6 billion B.C. to 2003 (and to the present day). I say detraction because it took/takes up most of the free time that I would ordinarly have spent working on the dictionary. Today I seldom work on or add new words to that dictionary. I have about thirteen thousand words at this time, but in spite of that I am not happy. The amount is far less from what ideally I would like to have. So in my case, timelines and world history came later. Word history came first.

  Perhaps I can respond to timelines in a follow up post. Unless I can give an answer (to Why timelines?) in the form of a question. Example: Why DNA?

Etznab

P.S. Looking at the pattern only after it's done. Can we look at a spider's web and tell how it was spun?

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Overcoming Memories

  So a person sets out upon the path to recording history. In numerous places they repeat, in effect, that the illustrations are not necessarily the truth, but that it's up to each observer to determine what is ultimately the truth for themself. Moreover, they don't associate their personal name with history because they know full well that when presenting such a large assortment of information, that  inevitably not all people will find everything to their liking. (Because today we have 24hr. news broadcasts giving history all around the world. Not all of what they report is true. Not all of what they report is false. That is OK. And that is OK for any other individual to do the same???)

  So a person belongs to a religion that not everybody else in the world belongs to. They set out upon the path to recording historical trivia about their religion. They illustrate both pro and con accounts with regard to same. They visit both sides of the issues. They enter the community of both adherents and "detractors" of their religion. With the "detractors" they find it can count against them to present their religion as 100 credible truth. With the adherents they find that it can count against them to record what the "detractors" are saying. It's a no-win situation for the one who sets about to compile a record of history, because somebody, somewhere, is going to identify them with the history that they record. And unless they are a member of CNN or some other respectable news agency, then they could just as well find themself like a minnow in a school of sharks. The larger corporation (larger body) attempting to swallow the individual (smaller body) trying to swim in the same waters of opportunity.  

  Thank you TruthSeeker for making me feel welcome at your site. You were the first B.B. that I ever joined. Why did I go off to join others? I thought that I would learn more about history. History which is my personal hobby to record. I thought that I would be in a position to share with other people from a wide background of experience. Not history alone, but I thought that I could share in other areas according to current topics of discussion. In the end, I have come back to TruthSeeker. I have returned to the place where I have been able to share and respond, and in spite of my religion, in spite of my hobbies or my educational background.

  You know that I am an Eckist. That this is the name of my religion. And you allow me to post and to dialogue on various topics whether about religion or not. Thank you for making me feel welcome. Thank you for not identfying me as though my only name was Eckankar. Thank you for not identifying me as though my only name was history. Thank you for allowing me to use an alias that I can be free from having my personal name identified with the experiences and the history of other persons that is my hobby to record.

  I want to end with a quote that I would like to share. Not for the argument of religion. Not for the argument of history. But simply  to replay a sentence of words to summarize what has been my experience:

"Since there is no time, but memories, then one has to overcome memories instead of the element of time."

[Based on: The Talons Of Time, by Paul Twitchell (d. 1971), Copyright 1974 ECKANKAR, Third Printing 1987, pp. 153 & 154]

Etznab

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Reply to Etznab

Hello Etznab.

A fascinating subject. I believe history as you describe it Is the illusion. Thats how I inerpet the Bhudist idea of the Ten Thousand Things. Once when "soul traveling" , I found myself floating outside the planet. There were dots of light everywhere and as I came closer they appeared to be translucent spheres like bubbles.Inside each bubble was an individual expressing their own history.It would emanate outward and then bounce back when it reached the bubble wall. I realized I could enter any of these bubbles I chose and have any particular experience or groups of images that this individual had accumulated as their own history.I was also aware that if I got into it too far I could become that reality and find myself reflecting off the bubble having forgotten that I had entered in the first place. In the context you are talking about, That experience along with its imagry is now part of my history. I'm sure you'd agree that it was the gift of love that enabled me to have that experience though Love goes way beyond that level of perception and beyond the confines of imagry and history to a place of just pure vibration and probably beyond. We can make choices how we create our history and those choices are also based on our accumulated history.The imagry is the gift we have to reflect upon when we make our choices . All those images have a complementary emmotion stored within us on a cellular level.We can remember a partner that used to arouse us and, like throwing a light swithc we become aroused.The difference being that we now have more experience with imagry or history and may choose a different way to respond to that desire. So having history is not bad in itself .I believe that when we take it to be reality ,we can get into illusion. In my opinion I see power as incapable of transcending history as its is dependant upon imagry and its accompanying emmotions. Therefore its is limited concioussness at best. Love as I've experienced it can take form but can also go way beyond form and therefore is an unlimited state of conciousness and so is very desirable. There are so many cultures with their own imagry and languages to describe such that it seems that any really serious study of ancient cultures can't be done. How can we create Demmo-Krassy in a place that doesn't even understand our accumulated imagry? Or we theirs. What we can do I suppose is to change our perception of it or rewrite it in a sense.Using creative conciousness the same way we create our future history we in a sense can re-create our past. Either way , even studying past lives can't be that accurate in a scholarly sense as it is colored with our own imagry and desire. The one thing that seems universal though is certain themes repeated over and over in cycles. Anger,greed,kindness ,charity,truth,lies etc. etc.What will it be today.Love or power. I'd like to spend more time contemplating this subject.For the time being I believe you are correct that history Is the great illusion.


I forgot to mention something regarding your theory about the recording of history. Years ago when really surrendering to a broken relationship it became crystal clear to me that I had already done this before in the future. Not in the past but in the future. Its possible I created it and then ran into my own manifestation but it was not that. It was something I had already done in the future.  Its as if this experience had already recorded in history and that I agreed that in the future I came back to the past to experience it. Sounds a bit whacky for sure. Oh well  

Brian

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Response and Question to Etznab

Hi Etznab.  J

ust because one has a timeline to observe doesn't necessarily mean that the recorded events are depicted in an accurate manner.  For instance some events as recorded by history didn't even occur, (G. Bush as being elected in 2000),or actual number deaths of soldiers in Iraq, ( the criteria is if one has died in the line of fire as opposed to deaths in a hospital etc.) but were recorded as actual events.  Most of history as we know it since 1947 has been engineered, so why the emphasis on timelines?  Most people analyse history from a primal bio-survival circuit state of consciousness and by the time it has been sanitized we then put our own take on it as well...and that's only the history that has had minimal "tampering."   To quote Gurdjieff, "history is a nightmare."  Is Pamela Anderson a record of feminism and attributes of the female species?.  Is H.Clinton even a women..huh.(LOL).  

Mario.
  

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Recording Of History

One of the popular paradigms about creation mentions God sending Soul into the lower worlds for experience. However, what if the lower worlds are nothing but recorded history? A land of memories? God's method for preserving creation in objective form?

  A painter wants to record an experience so they paint a picture. A sculptor carves an image. A musician composes a piece of music. A writer writes a book. In each case the original experience, what it was in the beginning, is taken out of context. Instead it is placed into another context and Spirit appears to have taken form.

  The best example is a writer who writes a book. Even if it were an autobiography, that book will resemble a code of symbols like so many pixels composing a snapshot, a picture, or a photograph of temporal events.

  The lower worlds have been described in various ways. Primarily consisting of the mental, emotional and physical planes. The mental plane consists of archetypes, or primitive symbols. It consists of thought-forms in the shape of pictures. It consists of memories or recorded events from the past. In every case, relative to Soul (or the higher self), I see the mental plane consisting of recorded history.

  Is it true for the emotional or astral plane as well? Are emotions more intense forms of recorded history? And is the physical plane the grossest form of history? A solidified state that is harder to change?

  Is it unreal to suppose that a medium exists for recording and preserving experience? An ice sculptor can preserve a living event. Embryos and other forms of life can be frozen and later revived. Matter itself can be changed in form. (From solid to liquid. Liquid to gas, etc., etc.) But in each case can we not agree that particular states of form exist relative to other sates of form?

  I find recorded history like a personal photo album in chronological order. I look at an individuals life from the age of youth through maturity. If the person is deceased, the album becomes a legacy and serves as a reminder. It would not capture the entirety of that individuals life! Even when a picture or a song sparks a flood of other memories about a particular person or event, it never seems to capture the entirety. Even when a person watches their entire life flash before their very eyes during a NDE (near death experience) or other altered state of awareness. So are we looking at so many memories? So many forms of recorded experience and forgetting about the bigger picture?

  What is the truth here? If the lower worlds are states of relative recorded experience. If the lower worlds are but the solidified memory of God in various forms? Is this the illusion?

  It seems like a perfectly natural occurrence, a desire to provide for and preserve the memory of God's creation. But is it the same? Is the creation the same as the creator? Are the lower worlds and the lower bodies the same as the higher planes and the higher self? What happens when we take a memory, or a part of creation, and equate that with Spirit? Equate that with God? Are we in fact looking at a limited form of Spirit? A limited form of God? Are we looking at recorded history?  

  I believe this touches on the topic for this month. I am curious as to what you might want to add. Comments by T.S. and others are welcome.

Etznab   

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The Merging of Realities -- Response to Brian

Hi Brian,

You are touching on a subject that has interested me for a long time, and that is the 2012 date marking the end of the Mayan calendar.  The reason I began to look into this whole topic is because I have become increasingly alarmed at the direction humanity has been steered into in the last century and can see no positive outcome UNLESS THERE IS A MASSIVE CHANGE IN CONSCIOUSNESS ON THE PLANET and people begin to be guided by love instead of by an insatiable lust for power.   This is the only thing that will avert disaster.  They say a miracle is nothing but a changed consciousness, and I believe in miracles.

Supposedly this date marks the end of a vast cycle of creation during which life has almost completed the evolutionary journey from cellular to cosmic consciousness, and from the point of view from the indwelling "I", the outer reality has changed accordingly.  What will happen beyond 2012 is anyone's guess, but one thing is certain, and that is we can speculate all we like, but ultimately, we will just have to wait and see.  Will our experience be disastrous, or will it be ecstasy? Theories and beliefs about what will transpire cover a whole gamut of possibilities from nothing unusual happening at all with things going on as they always have done according to the choices we make, to predictions of some catastrophe annihilating life on the planet, or to the occurrence of some type of cosmic "wave" event that has been described as a standing gravity wave, (a realm or plane border), that will bring about the Great Shift which will lift the planet into a higher density or plane.   Will it happen on a specific date, in the blink of an eye, or will the changes occur gradually over a great period of time?   As I said, it's anybody's guess. I wrote a post on HCS back on 1/27/04 which should have been called " What about 2012?" or "The Mall of the Universe" but which Ford retitled "What About Predictions of the Earth's Destruction in 2012 and Response from HCS".  You can look it up if you like in the archives to save me repeating myself here.  The post wasn't so much about the destruction of the earth as much as ascension into a higher density, the bifurcation of our reality and  how we will experience it.  Again, numerous theories abound.  Some believe that all of humanity will move into 4D, however their experience or perception of their outer reality will differ as it does for trees, animals and humans here.  Others think there will be an actual split in reality where those who are still enmeshed in their power games and materiality will remain on a 3D earth where they can complete their experience while those who are aligned to the higher vibrations and are ready to move on to finer creative pursuits will have the opportunity to do so on a 4D earth.  By the way, according to the quantum "Many Worlds Theory", this is not as far-fetched an idea as it might appear to be.  Actually, when we consider that nothing exists outside of the consciousness, then nothing seems impossible to me.  

I am fascinated in patterns, symbols and shapes which I see repeating endlessly throughout creation.  As the old occult saying goes, "as above, so below," I not only see the physical forms built upon these blueprints, but I also see repeating patterns in systems and group dynamics.  You mentioned seeing in a post somewhere where I was talking about the merging of the physical and the astral.  I think you are right when you say the boundaries have been overlapping for some time, and especially so in some places such as Stonehenge, perhaps.  Also, there are more children being born that are exhibiting paranormal abilities than ever before.  It is said that when the apex of the wave is upon us, that the boundaries between the densities will dissolve and everything will be on a level playing field and what was once hidden from us will be evident.  It will cause great confusion, almost as if all the channels on the TV are playing at once. People will lose their reference points.  But at the same time, it will be a great opportunity because there will be more choices than ever before and those who are attuned to the higher vibrations will be able to see and distinguish the portals (choices) to the 4D earth.   At least, so I have read.  Interestingly enough, I was just reading a book called "The Chaos Point," and came across a paragraph--I wish I could find it so I could quote directly--which said that any system, be it political, socioeconomic, or whatever is built on a certain way of thinking, but as time goes on, the system reaches a point where it is no longer viable and begins to break down to a chaos point.  The only way to go on from there without a total collapse is to solve the problem from an entirely new way of thinking.  It cannot be done by thinking in the same way as in the creation of the system which caused the problem.  But at the point of chaos, there is no limit to the possibilities that present themselves and the way forward is through new thinking and wild leaps of the imagination.  I thought how strangely familiar this scenario sounded and how it made me think of just what we might possibly be facing as we approach our date with destiny.

Whatever happens, we will see massive changes and the world as we have known it will be no more.

Love in Spirit and Truth,

Betty


  

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There In The Beginning

Brian,

  I really enjoyed reading your posts. And I do believe these times thay are a changin. I think they are rather quite historic times in which we live. These are times when more and more people are openly questioning religion. We are fastly approaching the point of discovery about the very fabric of life itself! Science and Religion are coming at it from different angles, but both are unraveling the very nature of existence.

  Allow me to tell you a true story. At the tender age of about five years old I was taking a walk. It was a bright beautiful sunny day. As I approached the corner I came to a wall. It was a little over waste high on my left. Behind the wall was a flower bed with some tulips. I remember stopping to inspect one bright red one. I was truly fascinated by the color of tulips on a beautiful Spring day. I bent over to touch the inside of one. And just then, as if from out of nowhere, an older kid came up from behind me. I heard the words before I even saw him. "Don't touch that!" "Don't touch that!" "Do you see that thing in the middle?" I said, yes? (knowing full well that it was the very part from which my finger was less than an inch away) He said, "If you touch that thing in the middle there, that flower will close up on your hand and you won't be able to get your finger out!" I recoiled in fear. I thought to myself, Dear God! And to think, I almost touched it! I felt foolish and afraid -along with a sense of luck and gratitude that a savior had come my way! For months and even years I absolutely dreaded tulips. I looked at them with a sense of fear and awe that only I could describe. But then one day somebody told me different. They asked me "Who told you that?" They told me "It's not true!" They told me that it was only a flower and that it couldn't really hurt me. I didn't believe them at first. They said, See? Look! And they touched  the inside of a tulip. I got up the courage and touched it myself (really quickly I might add). Eventually I would go and touch tulips on my own when nobody else was looking. Finally I convinced myself that there was nothing to fear. I finally understood the truth. Somebody had played a trick on me - only because they could!
  
  This just goes to show what some people will do for a sense of control, and what others will do to succumb. It shows how ignorance can be used like a weapon and turned against us. Something that we come to fear when we are told how it could hurt us. This story also helps to illustrate the power of belief and how strong it can be. So I hope you can laugh at this silly (but true) story about an ignorant little kid afraid to touch a tulip. But when you stop to consider what people have gone and done throughout the course of history with the power of their belief, sometimes it is not a laughing matter! Granted, sometimes belief is good. But either way it's like some kind of experiment. It's as if this life for us amounts to nothing but God, experimenting on itself, and learning to reap the results of action and reaction. One moment you look at something, and it is what it is. Another moment it's something ugly instead. Not only ugly, but something to fear! And then it happens. In walks a savior who can deliver us from all our fears! Usually it's the very savior that convinced us to fear in the first place! Suddenly we are worshipping someone else. We are worshipping something else. Suddenly our religion is born!

  Take it to mean what you want. But I have to stop and wonder. I have to stop and wonder if things were not once truly beautiful in the beginning. I have to wonder if God and the Devil, Heaven and Hell, good and bad, positive and negative are not only our record of human experience taking form. Because when it comes right down to the simple truth, it is not the matter that is created or destroyed. It is the meaning of the matter that lives and dies. Where does it live? Where is the meaning to our thoughts? I can't really say for sure. I would only guess that we are each involved. I would only guess that it was there in the beginning.

Etznab

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To Betty H.

Hello Betty    

I enjoy working with my hands as it leaves enough mind to contemplate. I think in Zen its called active meditation.  In some past post which I can"t find now you mentioned something about the idea that the planet  be entering the astral plane and when if that were to be and what would it look like. ?   I keep getting the sense that we are already doing that and that its a very subtle sort of thing as the physical and astral are overlapping or simultanious states. I sense that the division is slowly becoming less defined and shows itself as what would appear to be the notion of speeded up karma. I also observe what oddly appears to be incongrous behavior that seems to not mirror what we have formerly associated with the physical. Also what I see among governments. Also the increase in sexual deviancy and the general trend to withdraw from society and live anonymously via the net and other wireless technologies etc. On the surface things just seem to be the shifts found historically in the physical. Still I get this sense that the shift is happenning and not too many are aware of it.Trust me I don't think I'm losing it. The need to be awake and on our toes seems more imediate also as its easier to be influenced sometimes almost quicker than we can acknowledge it. Do you have some thoughts on this that you'd like to share?    

Brian K.

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Reply To Etznab

Hello Etznab ,  

I enjoyed your last post entitled " Life Of An Ideal "   There is so much to discuss about this topic . For now I'd say your article reminds me some of Joseph Cambell's writings about myths. You have a little different twist on it when you point out the various levels that people have as Ideals. During my first Year in Eckankar, I was clearly aware that a lot of what was being taught about the LEM and the Varaigi were most probably made up . Nevertheless they represented a high Ideal. The idea of Mahanta being the inner form of the highest state of conciousness man can attain of course is limitless as it is forever expanding so what ideal could be higher? Then there's the Mahanta the Living Eck Master and I chose to see that In a way that would fit my own ideal.  I joined AA ate the same time as Eckankar and since in AA we were striving to find a powere greater than ourselves, I eventually realized that god was too vast to know fully so the next closest thing is to experience It through a man or woman as being the channel for It. In AA its pretty simple .Look for someone who's accomplished and maintained long term sobriety.Someone who doesn't take themselves too seriously and who has the wisdom of experience.You can just tell when you see them because they naturally emenate these qualities. And so it was with Harold Klemp at least for awhile. I just took him to be a representation of a high ideal expressed in the form of a man though still just a man.  The other most important ingredient that both AA and (ECK) had for me was something I read of Paul Twitchell early on. " If you want to get somewhere, assume you are already there"  In AA this was called "fake it till you make it" or In otherwords just start talking the new talk and walking the new walk and the old will fall away. Just surrender it over to a power greater then yourself. The same with Eckankar. With both these paths the quickest way to make progress is to exclude every thing else possible and focus the attention on the Ideal .In AA this is quite necessary although after a good deal of time you can begin to relax a bit and go on more with daily living. I still to this day have gratitude for Hu chants as one could do that without any form of limitation. It seems that all Ideals are born from a desire to reach higher.Most religions seem to come from suffering and a desire to live better. It seems for the most part that they represent the Ideal in the form of ethics and moral codes. I belive they start from the heart but as with most things, once the desire has been somewhat quenched its easier to replace that with the rituals.And slowly the mind gets used to the cowpath and begins to worship the dogma and personalities wandering away from the pains of the heart. Paul Twitchell wrote of how all religions had begun with Eck or Spirit and ended up as empty shells. Oddly enough, Klemp has managed to take Eckankar down the same cowpath that Twitchell warned about. It started as an Ideal for me though as the focus grew to worship of Harold and clergy trainings and recruitment, it could no longer be my highest Ideal.I began with hopeful anticipation and left with fear and doubt. That should speak for itself. Why is the majority of the world still following cowpath ideals? Why does the western world base most of its beliefs on writings of Judaism. And why do we believe that any of that has any real basis in truth at all, other than the way they chose to tell it? How did the Ideals of living a better life and treating others with dignity become an excuse to war on others in the name of same Ideal.Its like the mind runs in a comfortable pattern concerning such things as democracy and major religions . When people begin trusting institutions over their own hearts then they lay themselves open to subtle manipulations by those that have just enough more knowlege who's Ideal Is Power. Not love but Power. The red flags go up for those that have some awareness but for most it just floats on by and the mind seeks the comfort synapses and thinks its still the same Ideal. All the time running about like machines responding to a completely different set of laws,chasing the dollar hoping to survive while the neighbors go hungry?
Maybe its time for the nations to reasess what  Values are going to be good for the whole rather than self. Its obvious what happens when Values become cowpaths. More later

Brian

cont.


----- Original Message -----
From: BRIAN KNOWLTON
To: BulletinBoard@thetruth-seeker.com
Sent: Saturday, November 04, 2006 5:50 PM
Subject: To Etznab continued



One more thing I've been questioning.  Is it true that in order to grow spiritually we have to  have religious and cultural conflicts and suffer greatly in order to grow? The only way we are to grow spiritually is to learn our lessons and move on. So why does the world continue to go through the same violent cycles if we've learned anything. Are some civilizations behind in their spiritual growth and if so why? Many will argue that that is just the way it is on this earth.Just a training ground for immature souls to grow. I'd like to challenge that .Presently my Ideal is that it seems like a great excuse not to take any responsibility.It could be possible that it's just more hogwash and rather than freeing, it entraps the soul here on earth. There are different degrees of pain that will make one grow. When I was a practicing Macrobiotic , I my body was so well tuned that a simple cup of coffee or a cheeseburger would make me ill. I didn't lose a leg or rape and pillage. I learned a usefull lesson though.When I was practicing breath and body work , I could tell when I was too close to someone's space and could feel their pain as my own.Having felt pain and caused pain I could remember my own reflected in theirs and be reminded of my values. I remember how unchained of my "self" i felt when I parted with a few bucks to buy some anonymous girl a Barbie doll for christmas.The point I'm making is this. It may be true that pain is a good catalyst for growth but to the degree that the world reflects that only says that we must as a whole be still following the spiritual growth of the beast. Its just this premise that  Most people extend out to the world of extraterrestials and of course assume that the universe is equally or more horrible as advanced beings will possess advanced horribileness. Give me a break.!  My personall Ideal would be to see some serious birth controll on the planet and put all uneccessary use and abuse on halt until the people are fed, housed and educated spiritually. I don't believe we are advancing anywhere at all as a whole or at best its shamefully slow. As if we are blinded by a lie waiting for godot to do something.So what exactly is mastering the Physical Plane. And at what point have we really moved on other than to create pleasant webs of illusions. Who's wisdom is it to say that Earth is just a stomping ground for soul.Once we find Love what next? So if this is a learning ground,how come it isn't an advanced learning ground? Pain can be subtle it doesn't have to be legless.An advanced planet would be working with subtlties by now.

Brian

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Life of an Ideal

Looking over religious scriptures brought me to a startling conclusion. I found a constant theme running throughout. The theme of what is ideal vs. what is not.

  John Lennon many years ago wrote the song "Imagine". In it one of the lines went something like this: "Imagine all the people. Living for today ..." John Lennon was later shot dead.

  I will be precise and to the point. There are times when a person will touch on a higher truth and even share it with the world. Times when a person will share what appears to reflect a higher truth. Especially people who have a dramatic spiritual experience. Immediately people begin to worship them. Immediately a person is looked upon as something special. In a mad rush to seize the moment and live the ideal of Heaven on Earth, people flock to idolize what they believe to be a savior. But I ask myself. Is the savior another person who had a spiritual experience? Is the savior another person who found spiritual teachings by personal experience? Even the spiritual experience of others before their time? This is something that I found. I found that amid the sea of humanity there is bound to be (at least) one person who will have a profound experience. It need not be a spiritual one. A person is recognized for having achieved something great. It might be someone who inherited a fortune. It might be someone who wrote a book. It might be many people in various degrees. Like the making of an award-winning movie. Something that inspires and captures our body mind and soul.

  I am trying to make the point that achievements happen. People are recognized for having done something great, and then their followers want more. The one who inspires is expected to inspire more. "Give the people what they want!" wrote a once popular rock-n-roll group (The Kinks). Do you see what I am saying here? We make Gods out of our idols! We invest them with more than what they can do. But it doesn't matter what they can do or not. What matters most is what people believe to be true!

  Remember the reality show "American Idol"(?). Well, maybe forget American Idol. Instead, consider a person who makes it on TV. It could be anybody. It could be people who won the lottery. People who rescued others from danger. Heck, it could even be comedians. All it takes is people inspired enough to support the Life of an Ideal. John Lennon sung "Imagine all the people. Living life in peace ..." But is this the way it happens? Dr. Martin Luther King gave a speech in which he said "I have a dream!" Is this the way it happens? In some respects it isn't. In some respects it is. All depends on the power of belief and what other people invest in the Life of an Ideal.

  Look at this theme from a historical perspective. The scriptures of Judaism mentioned that no less than God himself spoke to Moses. That God led his people, his chosen people, out of the wilderness and into the Promised Land. Years later the teachings of Christianity mentioned that the Messiah, the Son of God came to Earth and died on a cross for the sins of the people. Years after that, the teachings of Islam mentioned the prophet Muhammad and people were inspired to form one of the greatest empires on Earth. But it is not always good what the masses flock to in adoration. The crusades, for example. The time when men, women and children fought to gain the city of Jerusalem by force. Afterall, it was (is) a holy place. However, how many men, women, and children have died over that holy place? There was a time when European settlers went looking for what was "their" Promised Land. Some believed they had found it in America. Some believed they had found it in South America. Others, not necessarily Europeans, found their "Promised Land" existing someplace else. Never mind the people already living there! Never mind the religion, the language, or the way of life lived by indigenous populations for hundreds, perhaps even thousands of years!. Afterall, if some people are really inspired (and have enough followers), all they have to do is convert what is foreign to them. All they have to do is claim their neighbors possessions, the natural resources, and the very land on which they settle! History is filled with examples of what people have done for the Life of an Ideal.

  Everybody is searching for one. If you read the scriptures. If you go to a church or holy place. If you visit the town of an important person or the neighborhood of a celebrity. What do you find? You find reverence? You find awe? You find something powerful permeating the very objects in the very same environment. In some it's as though the objects themselves behave like power-packs charged with the spirit, the mind, and the emotions of those who had worshiped there! Have you been to a department store? Have you been to a restaurant? Have you been to a theme park?

  What happens when an object of worship stops short of being most ideal? Do we recognize it? When we worship others as God and they fail to act like God all the time? Then what? This is one of the conclusions that I came to after looking over religious scriptures (for the ummm?teenth time). I concluded that people were trying to capture the Life of an Ideal. They were talking about how to capture the highest ideal and make it live. The highest ideal(s) that one could possibly imagine. Ideals that were absolutely Heavenly! I saw from history what people had come to know by believing the fact that anything was possible. They were told that all they had to do was to have faith. Even more than having faith, I saw how people were told to believe!

  We have the right to believe. We have the right to freedom of religion. These things people have to an extent in most countries today. But this is not what I want to argue. For myself, I have this question. Where is the highest ideal that one can imagine? Where is God on Earth? In the thousands of years of Earth's history. In the hundreds of civilizations and religions. Where is God? Did God leave us hear? someday to return? Is God among the host of people walking on Earth today? Where is the highest ideal that the scriptures talk about? If there is no one God, but instead we find many? Maybe we haven't made it there! Maybe our planet (as a whole) is still lacking something? Maybe we are lacking the knowledge that God is the Life of an Ideal!

  Whether we call something a God. Whether we call something a Devil. Is it not the same? The Life of an Ideal? Is this what we believe? (believe - trust in, accept as true, hold as an opinion)

  People could imagine that what I come to conclude is based on things that I already knew. This is not entirely true. Like the spiritual exercise of poetry that I found for making things tangible, writing has become a similar exercise. By giving form to something I find a way to study it. I find a way to look at what it appears to be. What it appears to say. Then I move. I move on to where the path appears to lead. And where the path appears to lead may not be the same as where the path appeared to leave. At this point my path has led to the contemplation of something. The "Life" of an Ideal.  

  So I cannot totally claim this article to be my creation. Not when the collection and presentation of words come by the experience of others. What you come to read is your experience. Ultimately it comes to mean what it come to mean to you. In short, I would have to conclude that "THIS" is the Life of an Ideal.

Etznab

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