Wrestling with God

There have been laboratory experiments conducted on human subjects to determine their abilities to demonstrate the state of happiness without technological assistance, or drugs. A monk with developed meditative skill can easily drift into a state of bliss showing a brain wave pattern on the EEG similar to a married couple reminiscing on the time when they first felt love for each other.

Question: What is the difference should there be a technology made possible to wire up the brain where brain waves can be manipulated to deliver the mind, and body the feeling of blissfulness? “Hedonism” is a study, and belief of man’s proclivity in pursuing happiness is a natural calling. Will technology being the natural progress in the evolution of mankind be favorable under the “Hedonism” doctrine of utilitarianism?

Employing technology will involve the separating of the brain function from its uniform mind (ie. mind is the entire framework of the human body including the brain), and the result will likely be the same EEG pattern as the monk who is not provided with technological assistance. While the methodology differs, the results are the same. If the results are the same, is there a matter in choosing the easier path to redemption?

Leaving one part of your mind resting at home while the other goes out to play is invalidating creation’s invitation for a correlated dance between our virtual, and physical minds. This prompts the analogy of car racing in which the driver, and machine must cross the finish line to win. Indulging in technology, or even drugs is to deceive the nerve cells and brain receptors with misinformation intervened by an external force. Distilling the sense of ecstasy by way of disrupting the synchronicity of the body function is an act of iniquity. A cheap thrill liking to the idea of visiting Disneyland to forget our troubles for a day, but a thrill no less. Man has the gift of command to spawn love’s attributes into existence, and expresses it through the body language. Exploiting the body to subject the mind into a hallucination is a disconnect of our reality that spoils that gift.

Talking about the pursuit of happiness  takes me back about 3 years when my mental state was severely challenged. I was experiencing intense intimidation like a little mouse about to be devoured by a predator. The doctor thought I was having an anxiety attack, or depression. It was neither. The encounter was precise, and coordinated as if “someone” had a hand in it. Evidently, my state of mind was floating on anxiety as I wasn’t feeling the presence of people around me. I was cut off from reality, and it was very lonely. My mind went on overdrive in the fight to change the circumstance by attempting to create a finite model of life hoping to explain my way out of the recurring cyclical mind trap. Failing badly to conceptualise life into a model with predictability, intellect and logic, I surrendered to letting go of the thought by not allowing life’s happenings to get ahead of me.

The opposite effect of the ordeal did come a few days after. Love invites itself, and I was bathing in its radiance. As I was immersed in love’s realm, I felt everyone and everything equate to me. I’ve learned of the term “unity consciousness”, and I think it describes love best. I share this so you know that there is something in being human more than you think you know.

Love is not a figment of the imagination even though it’s infamous for hiding in its opacity. Where is it? Happiness is not love, but a representation of it along with sadness. Love carries both grains of happiness, and sadness as both are emotional cousins. The seesaw effect of neutralising the opposing emotions is our way to come of age. The assessment of happiness over sadness, and vice versa culminates until both emotions diminished to reach a climax where love lands to reveal itself. Here is when the seesaw stops contending, and balances up. Like a stream with another flowing along on its opposite side, both converging into a river bound to meet the sea. In our quest for peace we constantly take the task to wrestle with God, not that to offer our best to Him, but all that we are.

Prisoners of Love

I’d like to think of philosophy as a conscientious observation on life’s events. After all, our physical representation is a manifestation of our conscience bringing its philosophy to life. Much like how Jesus used parables to express his views as lucid as possible for his disciples to get their heads around. Here is a quote I’ve extracted from a fellow blogger who loves philosophy.

“For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Within the given minute overwhelmed by despair, there are constant moments of desperate cry for happiness to take the pain away. Moments of happiness are precious as it has a lesser outcome in comparison to anger. The fact that we yearn for relief from despair despite the imbalance is proof that our inner being is made of love, and its mechanism of restitution shows that happiness is our natural state of mind.

QUESTIONS:-

If happiness or love is our natural state of mind, then why do the stats favor more to the negatives?

Why is happiness made rare to the extent that we have to yearn for it as described by Ralph W. Emerson?

Why do we need Jesus to reveal love, then embracing the institution of religion to constantly remind ourselves of it?

Why do we need to be consistently reminded even if love is innate?

Is it probable that we are “prisoners” hopelessly caught in a cycle dwelling on guilt, blinded by the self imprisonment that we can’t see even the lighter shade of truth? 

Something tells me finding love is not meant to be easy particularly for people greatly indebted to ego. Love is not meant to be obvious either, because it’s woven into the fabric of our ego. The suture of ego needs to be undone to set love free. Freeing love is a challenge worth taking for its rare, and precious qualities to be realised. This challenge is an integral part of life’s design to reward the effort in finding love with a deep sense of appreciation. By that gratitude is the knowing that gives us as “prisoners of guilt” hope.

For example, I wanted to grow an avocado tree in my garden. I’ve learned that I needed to germinate the seed first to give it “hope” for the tree to have a better chance of survival. It would take a month-process of nurturing in germinating the avocado seed to finally see the roots, and shoot to appear strong, and healthy. Hope is when the seedling is planted into the ground that one day it will blossom into a fully grown avocado tree that will bear fruits of joy. Where is the love in all this? Love rides on the desire, and participation in bringing life from a lifeless seed to reveal beauty that will be a new addition to my garden.

Similarly, Jesus used the parable of the mustard seed to describe the kingdom of God. Here, there are many degrees to understanding. Some would simply imagine a physical place called heaven where it’s filled with mustard trees. Some would resonate right away with the description which doesn’t require other kinds of seed like an avocado for further explanation. Nothing is accomplishable from love unilaterally. Love needs to put to work in order to harness its reward in hope for the “kingdom of God”. I can assure you, mustard trees are not likely the reward. Based on my conscientious observation, it’s best said you are what you make your “kingdom of God” to be. 

Jesus was gifted to see into every soul like an hourglass. He understood the seed in every soul needed hope in order to blossom as intended by creation to be one with it. Even in our physical state, we are living the kingdom of God by regularly “tuning” our conscience just as we make the effort to harness the attributes of love. Day by day we tune in, for the kingdom of God will one day be the quality of your conscience that is promised.

So it seems, our fate rests in the effort that must be made for love to fulfill itself with gratitude where hope will be our guide to be with God we choose to believe. It’s a process that is not exactly free for we are prisoners of love.

“The peace that heaven promises mirror the clarity of your conscience”

Compromising Truth

Compromising ‘truth’ will deconstruct the ethos to concoct measurable facts to contest its foundation. The act of compromising carries with it the notion of temptation that we are well aware of its consequences should we choose to exercise it. This is our human challenge which we consistently face in making daunting decisions to appease the pride of the many. As it’s never an easy task, we needed to grow in appreciating, and understanding the depth in the value of ‘trust’ that must be defended should ‘trust’ be that human quality to guide us into salvation.

We often take “shortcuts” to resolve issues that can only be short lived. Political scenes today reveal opposing parties that have never been so desperate in their attempts to wrestle for power. When in power, promises would fall prey to compromise where deals are negotiated behind doors. Compromising is not entirely a bad thing. It can deliver a fair agreement for all, if not the majority. However, there are inescapable consequences when morality is violated.

Lawmakers/politicians are skillful in twisting the truth that makes them infamous for wearing many faces. It’s in man’s manipulative sway where I am certain when the act of compromise is on the cards for the taking, guilt will tarry in the conscience. And, the guilt builds up layer by layer over time.

A recently released movie called, “The Two Popes” is worth the watch. The underlying message resonates with the topic of discussion written here. Featuring Sir Anthony Hopkins as the incumbent Pope Benedict, and Jonathan Price as Cardinal Bergoglio as the next Pope to take the helm. Their confessions delineated the circumstances of the decisions they made as stewards of God that affected many innocent lives. The Pope thought the Cardinal compromised his faith by keeping his silence during the political upheaval in his country (ie. Argentina) some thirty years ago. But, the Cardinal defended his actions indicating it was not compromise, but improvise whilst his faith in God remained unchanged. Nonetheless, in desperation the Cardinal did appease the pride of his aggressors in order to hold back their murderous rampage. Even then, the thought of it was disturbing. In silence, the emotional strain took its toll on the Cardinal. Is it a case when trust was compromised?

Comparatively, Pope Benedict suffered from a certain kind of guilt too for his action of inaction which saw clerical sex abuse persisted in his Church. Pope Benedict was known to be steadfast in the faith, and unwavering devotion to the rules. On that basis, he chose not to take further action against the transgressors believing his trust in God would prevail over the predicament. In contrast to the Cardinal’s taking matters into his own hands, the Pope opted to clasp his hands in prayer to resolve imminent troubles, and threats. Ironically enough, the Pope’s uncompromising stand compromised him. The undoing was his inaction. All the same, guilt weighed heavily on him too. Is it possible to allow trust to compromise us as it did with the Pope?

Assessing the two minds, it’s worth mentioning the different views they have on God. As I see it, the Pope believed in God. The Cardinal believed in God in him which could easily suggest the God that the Pope held true to his belief is next to non-existent. That is a matter of personal interpretation. However, shouldn’t one stay resolute in God, or the idea of it just as the Pope did? No questioning, no judgement, and no doubt. Or, is blind faith a mistake? If there is such a thing as a ‘mistake’.

You may have heard of the saying, “life is an illusion”. It’s a cliche thrown into general conversations without much thought. Life is an illusion because we live in the lies that we made for ourselves. Somehow, man draws comfort from that. Realising the dishonesty is getting out hand, faith steps in to defend truth. This is an insult to humanity by introducing a third party called “God” to defend our lack in faith, or commonsense. Why do we need to create the fear in God to keep the faith in order to defend truth? Why do we often struggle to stay close to the truth? It is because we can’t handle the truth (recalling Jack Nicholson making that statement in the movie ‘A Few Good Men’, 1992).

Spiritual masters like Buddha, Jesus and Prophet Muhammad had open dialogues with their disciples to unravel the mysteries of life. We should continue to do the same today to serve soul searchers of this era. We need to intellectualise life’s mysteries to bring better meaning that is acceptable to help us reach peace of mind.

Example, the term “enlightenment” regularly crops up in spiritual talks. It’s to supposedly describe something great. So great, and powerful that only our imagination can take us to its meaning. In other words, we don’t know what it means. I certainly can’t say that I do. “Enlightenment” is  the ability to analyse life’s events, and circumstances from a lighter stand, hence the name. If it’s in any other way, the opposing will weigh heavily on the emotions. Seeing life’s issues as lightly as the weightless ray of light will pave the way to a peaceful mind. Here’s another, what is the secret of life? The secret is to have none. For each secret that you hide, you lose a part of your innocence. Do you see how the answers point back to  the questions? It’s because the questions were articulated to suit the answers that already existed, but yet to be known in a measurable definition. It’s with this reason that we find ourselves falling short in our admission to the truth even though the question that is engineered is the answer.

Truth is where love resides. They share the same quality. Truth, or love is not tangible. Man in his egoistic nature has given into temptation to tangibilize the intangible in order to create definitions of right and wrong, black and white, or stupid and clever, etc. We differentiate our existence to create conflict, and argue about it.

Here is another conundrum which I made up, “To understand love is to let go of it”. 

The “Cloak-and-Dagger” of Fallacy

Knowing my interest in life’s subjects on explaining the unexplainable, my daughter recently shared with me there are as many as 20 classifications of fallacy in her study of critical thinking. She referred Ad Hominem Fallacy, Strawman Argument, Appeal to Ignorance, Red Herring Fallacy, to name a few. The Ad Hominem Fallacy vilifies, Strawman Argument put words into the mouth of others, Appeal to Ignorance employs “can be because it’s maybe”, and Red Herring Fallacy is insidious. It’s a subject preferably conducted in a classroom condition, and best that I leave the details to the pursuit of academia. There are many tactics used in fallacy, but they share a common desire of deception with the purpose to gain admiration, and support. Some fallacies obfuscate the truth with the intention of alluding to a supposition.

I am not sure how the thought on this will unfold. So, I am winging it.

Fallacy is employed by almost all politicians to overshadow their opponents, and to draw out a crowd, garnering the support they needed to stay relevant. The arena of politics adopts competition by opposing to establish the superior view. Objecting supposedly says there is an alternative view. Naturally, this invites audiences that are waiting for a reason to give their approval. If the fallacy is convincing enough then the candidates will get to keep their jobs which pays them a living.

Humanity are sentient beings with the power of conscience to conjure anything to keep the perspective of life interesting. The mind is immensely influential in its art in rendering life as a fallacy. This “proclamation” is not entirely false. It has validation from the spiritual, and scientific standpoint. Zen speaks of our physical appearances, and experiences perceived by our 5 basic senses (ie. sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch) are merely illusions with the understanding that our conscience is orchestrating them. Science claims that the perception of life’s solidity, and continuity are only limited by the cognitive frequency indicating that there is more to our appearance than meets the eye.

Fallacy is typical of life. It’s in our nature to use fallacy on any circumstances to cover the many representations of life. Disguising love, hate, bravery, fear, forgiving, unforgiving, success and failure are circumstantial acts of deception. Dressing up, or down our image on how we wish to portray ourselves following the different roles we choose to epitomise, be they celebrities in entertainment, political leaders, military, religious leaders, a highly respected family member, and any successful working civilians are archetypal deceptions. We create a paradox of fallacy to hypothesize life to give it context, meaning and hope.

In that, God, religion, karma, and “feng Shui” are highly subjective topics. Some would say, winning a lottery is luck, but it’s a blessing too because God moves in mysterious ways. If God is such a mystery then coincidence, luck and miracles are all the same. Can anyone claim on having experienced the presence of God, or divinity be a fallacy? Sure, it’s their reality against yours, and their words against yours. Is spring possible without going through the cycle of winter first? Can we see the significance of 3 if 2 is skipped? Is virgin birth possible? Did Jesus walk on water? It’s difficult to process miracles, let alone circumstances that don’t follow the natural order that existence which is designed to do. If cheese was squeezed straight out of a cow, people would still doubt. If more trust is needed, and less doubt, perhaps we go back to basics, and deconstruct the thinking to the way once innocence play when anything, and everything are possible. Realistically, that may not be such a good thing from a grown up perspective.

Fallacy, lies, half lies, and half truth. Where is the truth? Is there an absolute truth? Can we handle the truth?

Fallacy creates a world of fantasy seized by pride that will never allow the truth to prevail. Truth lies in the firm hold of pride which confined beliefs, and fantasies to its lair. Having pride in God and religion, or money and power, or success and failure or being gay or vegan is about disguising fear. Truth diminishes when pride tightens its grip on principles, and beliefs. When the grip is loosen, truth releases. Ego has its way with pride to over turn love into lust. We need to constantly pull pride back to be close with the spirit of creation. Only then, God, religion, money, power, success, failure, being gay, or vegan will no longer carry the burden pride, and losing the love for their recognition will make our existence meaningfully real.

So, truth is a matter of pride. With fallacy plays its cards well, truth will have many faces. This is the reason for the growing presence in strife which sets humanity apart. It’s not because of our differences in ethnicity, culture or beliefs, but inflated pride. If pride is managed with humility, our existence will become unquestionably agreeable, and acceptable. Not by lots of noise and arguments, but with silence where fallacy submits.

Truth  ∝ 1/Pride

Truth is inversely proportional to pride. As pride increases in its intensity, truth diminishes. If this mathematical equation has anything to go by, to achieve absolute truth suggests pride equals zero. Is it possible for love to completely replace pride? This means humanity will be completely cured from ignorance. Historically, life doesn’t seem to suggest that because more often than not, it takes pride to love, and forgive. If this attitude persists, mankind cannot go the distance. Perhaps, we can only draw ourselves closer to the infinite, but never arriving at ground zero.

The equation also suggest with lesser pride in God, the greater meaning in God will become. I’ve just realised that I’ve correlated the domain of science, and spiritual with a mathematical equation where the 2 realities are famously known for their incompatibilities. The virtual will invariably remain a fallacy as any attempt to measure them within the purview of our physical laws are inadequate. Unless, we accept to believe, fallacy stands triumphant.

Ghandi once said, “Be the change you want to see in the world”. I understand that he didn’t coin the phrase, nonetheless he spoke it from a place of wisdom. It suggests a shift in perception to have existence be compatible with our expectations. But, we still seek satisfaction that must be full. This is a fallacy. We must see our existence is an invitation to serve by fitting in with the world that we are born into. This is acceptance with a full stop.

Much of what we do dwells in the process of self-assessment to determine whether our decisions, and actions justify the direction that we are taking in which serves us best. Most of us would rather choose the easy way out, and live beneath the guise of lies to escape persecution. Few would have the guts to live by the truth.  The reality is we are characters of pride with many faces of truth, and absolute truth remains a point too far to see, too close to find.

S.O.S

Civility is the pride of humanity that has stood the test of time. It’s code of conduct remains challenged. Social divide is spreading, and the fear of uncertainty is testing our faith in the civil values that we embraced. It would seem the appeal for love is diminishing. Love is a trend which is becoming harder to sell. Hate is breaking into fashion obstructing wisdom in its path. For our civilization to sustain, love must apply to soften the hard stance of hate. A remedy to allow wisdom to shape a better future.

Hate is rigid, as it is hard. It incites anger, and anger has the effect of collateral damage. Not all anger is the same. Anger with a grudge is particularly dark. It distils from hate that has the element of revenge lodged in the mind to serve only to an unending affliction to self, as well as others. Revenge grips the mind, and provokes the emotion by taking the notion to a level more personal than it deserves which lacks content, and meaning. Intemperance will not open doors to wisdom. The idea of kicking down, and breaking doors won’t give the same emotional effect as opening them with a key. When the wisdom door is damaged, so has its purpose. A broken door is useless as it allows effortless entry without trials. The worthy walks through the doorway of wisdom feeling accepted without having to break anything. It’s our life’s purpose to mend doors to resolve resentments. Though the cycle can be repetitive, but in good conscience love will touch our senses to soften our approach to open the door by turning the key. In that given solace, prisoners of conscience that we are will walk away with a breath of relief each time a fractious thought is allowed to be released from its bind. When this thought vacates, love takes its place to free us. Imagine a sponge in its natural form ready to absorb water. Be like that.

Anger is a derivative of hate, and the other is vanity which is born of pride. Both are equally self-defeating. Somehow God’s mind has a conscience of mercy to guide us through mishaps in order to realise our erroneous exploitations. God has contingency to write the wrongs when we have a reroute with insolence. Merciful He is, but God’s patience has limitation. Since the known of time, the process of ageing is designed to negate the affection for vanity in redeeming God’s will. God’s patience runs along our life journey. Ageing will make anyone realise what they think of the undying lust for vanity, do die. As hate will face shame, vanity will face emptiness. The fad for having a complex is transitory, but it’s a make belief that will leave anyone feeling lonely. God’s mercy reliably rides with us throughout our lives, but it will run thin should we continue having repetitive run-ins with mending our wisdom door.

In our peril, religion comes to our aid when we needed a spiritual guide to help build a sense of hope over senseless hype. Somehow, in our credulous nature, believing in a greater power provides comfort. In humility, we re-established our relationship with God, a higher intelligence in exchange for a sense of security, and eternal protection.

The mind of God is framed within the inception of time, and its demise. In this domain, where space, and time spread defines His imagination. God’s imagination is so far reaching that we will always be trailing in its wake. If the idea of God is omnipotent, then He doesn’t need us to defend Him, or do His bidding, or even bribe Him with love. We have dug ourselves so deep in guilt that we would devise a scheme to bribe God with love in exchange for what is conceived as “unobstructed” passes. Obviously, we will fail to take the bluff to God because our mind sits within His. It’s our intimate nature to commit bribes that will ultimately bring deceit upon ourselves. We know God knows our deepest desire because we orchestrate His thoughts. In other words, by offering God with the gift of ‘love’ with the expectation of a reward in return is a deception that will ultimately prove that we’ve mislead ourselves. Why would God accept our gift? Because, it’s a bait to tempt Him. Temptation is the proclivity to indulge in our weakness that we are warned to refrain. In our action without rational thought behind it, we’ve insulted God and succeeded in reducing His Almightiness to a notch lower. If God is supreme, He doesn’t need anything from us.

If any offering to God has no significance, then we must be standing on weak ground. Our fate hangs in a balance should God cannot be appeased with gifts. So, where do we stand?

We stand by each other.

Just as God stands by us with His mercy, we return the favor by standing by our fellow men. The exchange of gifts is different between God, and Man as opposed to Man, and Man. If you think it’s the same, then your God is a corrupt one.

There is place where the ground doesn’t crumble beneath us. A place of meaning where we learn to love from our hearts in appreciation by coexistence within the spread of God’s domain. Here is where self-sacrifice is rendered without condition, or the need for bribes. When we stand by our fellow men, we grow our love from within, and that itself is gratitude for God’s mercy. God is an illusive reality of its own right. Our existence can only relate to the thought that spreads within the boundary of God’s mind. The mind of play is framed on the game of a snooker table which I’d like to use as a similarity to describe life. Directions, and positions of the balls are predictable from a calculated strike demonstrating life’s karmic law of cause, and effect. For love to be widely appreciated, taking a direct approach to the illusive greatness does not have the same effect as harnessing the love from the spirit of the game. Existence is our salvation.

The depiction of God as ‘Yahweh’, ‘Almighty’, or ‘Allah’ carries the idea of infinite possibilities to those terms. Every religion swears to one true God, a universal God no less. In the pride of upholding religious identity, the term “universal” loses its true meaning. Pride grades God. When religious authorities say that we are one in the eyes of God, but how do we explain the growing division that we are in today? I don’t see a sweeping reform in unity throughout two millennium of human history by upholding the tenet of religions. Instead, religious outfits are trying to outdo each other. Which means, the change that all instituted religions want to bring upon its worshippers is superficial. The true path to lift our faith closer to God is by a personal effort that we can make on our own. It starts from within. To an extend, religious societies have lost their way in unifying the greater population by remedying the symptom, but not the cause much like what medicinal drugs do. The cause will be in a state of suppression. Nevertheless, they do have the recipe in their possession to help worshippers exude humility in knowing there is something in creation that is much greater than themselves. Yet, only we can bring ourselves to recognise this opportunity. To accomplish this process, the recognition of God does matter as it paves the way for our humble act in salutation which matters even more. The act in wanting to reform the mind towards a level of quality in wisdom which must match the sincerity of the initiative. This is essential to the change for a united, and peaceful world that we seek.

It’s not my wish to take anything from the institutions of religion. My intention is to assess, and address our action’s misalignment from our natural desire for wisdom. Unless our perception shifts to mitigate the distortion, we will find ourselves remedicating our afflictions. I am addressing the depth of our need for reform. Our sincerity must be assessed, and put to the test every time before we make our entrance through the doors of temples, churches, mosques, or any places of worship. Put on the attitude which fits the idea of not bringing gifts for bribe. Be more of a follower, rather than a worshipper to accomplish more. Your presence in the company with the congregation of your fellow followers is all that matters. Lest we forget, it’s in the spirit of a mass following that gives birth to religious clubs, and memberships, not God.

We don’t need religion to show kindness, or aggression. The feeling of love, or hate is captured from our personality, but chosen to be in disguise by the cover of religion. It’s a case of human weakness in faith to use religion as an excuse to bail out actions which are actually derived from choices personally made. Somehow, we are drawn to the pretext of religion. Religion is like the clothes we wear that we love showing off so much that in the spirit of sharing that love has been sidelined.

To most of our us, actions don’t reflect the true nature of our intention, because we play to the tune of self-deception. This is where our soul stands apart from our conscious body, and mind. The intuitive mind yearns for peace, but the other chooses fear to stay divided. Fear of the unaccustomed change that draws from our natural defence system. To deliver a clear alignment is the reform that requires honesty without fear. It requires a process in deconstruction of our human make-up to accomplish the challenge that is bestowed upon us. The misalignment is our double standard which makes us hypocrites. Lay your cards clean on the table with nothing to be a shame. This process allows the exchange that will broaden the horizon of our understanding measured by the degree of our virtue. The construction of a meaningful life depends on it. If man walks the path of this humble sway, humanity may be thrown a lifeline, and prevail.

Footnotes:

“No man walks the Earth is without flaw”

“When the wisdom door opens, the mind reaches a level of thinking that no longer perceive certain elements of life that were once feared, and ashamed, whereby setting the mind on a balance in acceptance to any given condition”