Message to the messangers

There are two ways of spreading light: to be The candle or the mirror that reflects it....

For me, the different religions are
beautiful flowers from the same garden,
or they are branches of the same majestic tree.
Therefore, they are equally true,
though being received and interpreted
through human instruments equally imperfect.
~ Mahatma Gandhi ~


I see American style religions today more like a very thorny bush that bares little fruit and few flowers anymore, perhaps the variety that can be used to weave crowns. As I mentioned before, truth is out there in the world, to find it we must seek it, many in this world have found it and tossed God aside not knowing what they had found, most are led away from truth to protect the status quo.

I have to wonder sometimes how many times a preacher thinks I better not preach about this or that subject, i.e. abortion or war e.g. for fear of getting the boot or alienating some of the more generous tithing base of supporters. I have witnessed both. "Don't come in here trying to change things with that nonsense about truth, we like things just the way things are, heretic, blasphemer, you bastard!" He goes or I go, seems I read something about this very thing before:

 On another Sabbath he went into the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was shriveled. The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath. But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shriveled hand, "Get up and stand in front of everyone." So he got up and stood there. Then Jesus said to them, "I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?" What would Jesus do?…..He looked around at them all, and then said to the man, "Stretch out your hand. He did so, and his hand was completely restored." But they were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus, Luke 6:6-10.


The poor pastor is only allowed to preach about sunshine and the pretty flowers, prohibited from any discussions about the rain currently falling and the severe storms forecast for the future, for heavens sake. For hells sake, he might remind his flock about the west-coast tsunami of sinful idol worship, or the east-coast hurricane of hypocrites and warmongering Whitehouse.


What's the difference between wants and needs? Today's heaven and tomorrows hell, for some I suppose, according to Luke's testament. Wealthy need more money for tomorrow's want, the hungry need food today for want of another tomorrow. The ministers want to speak of these but also has a need to buy groceries today and gas for tomorrows wants and needs of others. I can't blame him really, he loves his family, wants them to be happy and has to provide for their needs as best he can. To keep his job he has two choices: tell them what they want to hear or tell them what they need to hear and learn a trade. I hear carpentry is a noble profession, he'll need a hammer, and may want to join the union for steady work. Depends whom he's really working for, God's wants or the committee of benefactors that need a tax-deduction for build the new fellowship hall, we should be grateful to brother moneybags for needing to rob IRS Paul to pay for wanting St. Peters massive Church house. Let us not forget to thank God for brother moneybag's selfish dad that died prematurely, needing salvation wanting heaven, and left Junior all that cash needlessly wanting more. Those new digital church bells sure sound nice. The world doesn't want another church with new bells, the world needs a church with big iron cast balls, noisy clanking cajonnes! The sixth chapter of Luke lays out who is going to get what they need and why Jesus wants to give it to them, and it looks like some very important people, in their own mind, are going to be painfully disappointed needing comfort and wanting relief. That, my friends, is the difference between venal wants and humble needs. Hell's needs may become heaven's wants.


Rare and gifted is the pastor that can perform miracles….that is, job security, a charitable congregation, and Gods Blessings, the greatest miracle or blessing being walking that tight-rope and still able to get a good nights sleep. I couldn't do it, I mean caring for my flock and all and then still worry about those minor details Jesus ask us to take care of for him…..you know, the hungry, the poor, the homeless, the funerals for dead Christian soldiers fighting for peace, comfort tearful widows and orphans left behind, then find time to visit sister Mary moneybags after her needed gallbladder surgery along with her wanted tummy-tuck surgery. Amen.

 Most of my prayer time lately have been going out to those spiritual shepherds, than the hungry politico wolves devouring the flock.

Please don't be confused about being religious and being spiritual. My m-word dictionary definition of:
religion:
1. beliefs and worship: people's beliefs and opinions concerning the existence, nature, and worship of a deity or deities, and divine involvement in the universe and human life

2. particular system: a particular institutionalized or personal system of beliefs and practices relating to the divine

3. personal beliefs or values: a set of strongly-held beliefs, values, and attitudes that somebody lives by

4. obsession: an object, practice, cause, or activity that somebody is completely devoted to or obsessed by

Spiritual:
 1. of the soul: relating to the soul or spirit, usually in contrast to material things

2. religion of religion: relating to religious or sacred things rather than worldly things

3. temperamentally or intellectually akin: connected by an affinity of the mind, spirit, or temperament

4. refined: showing great refinement and concern with the higher things in life.

Note that religion mentions nothing about your soul. Teaching someone that he has a free spirit is dangerous to a religion that creates social and dogmatic boundaries for control. Religions main objective seems to be teaching acquiesce of separateness through intolerance.

My spirit is boundless and my concept of God doesn't stop at the borders between, Baptist, Catholic, Jewish, Hindu….. Whatever. Look around, are we being led by example as individuals or by a committee as sheeple?  Most of the world religions I see today want to argue about how to worship Him and the proper mechanics of the rituals, they have literally threw the Holy Baby and his teachings out with the baptismal bath water. As an earth bound human I do not and cannot know the unknowable, nor do I need to, but my spirit knows the Truth, can recognize the truth, the only thing I need to know is greater is He that is in me than in the world. I am part and particle connected to everyone and everything, I am the kosmic debris born of He who created all I can and can't see or explain and quantify.

Carl Jung whose profession was the scientific study of the human mind, his influence on psychology is profound especially in the field of comparative religion and the relationships of a groups collective social conscience. He once said that religion was a manmade roadblock to true spirituality. Jung came to the conclusion that the existence of the soul was real from scientific clinical study of his patients, that we all have this unconscious, but not unknowable, connection to one another that is stored non-locally, meaning outside the physical body. Each of us are born with connections to this universal source, a higher power, cosmic consciousness, I choose to call my source God. Call it whatever you want, semantics doesn't change what God is.

Carl's observations and his pioneering methods as a psycho-analyst revealed that most of mans neurosis and psychosis was rooted in mans inability to reconcile between religion, being manmade, and the spiritual, being God made, what man sees outside compared to what he feels inside are in constant opposition to each other. Result, go nuts or go postal. Medicine has no cure, only pills to pacify the unquiet mind.

There are many ways man compensates for this internal conflict, the obvious negative ones are what we have today….when denial fails, things religion was not designed to fix, intolerance is a biggie. ….. addictions,  are the main ones, the seven deadly sins…..Luxuria (extravagance, later lust), Gula (gluttony), Avaritia (greed), Acedia (sloth), Ira (wrath, more commonly known as anger), Invidia (envy), and Superbia (pride), pretty much sums up all the worlds problems, don't it. Sounds like American Christianity, a collection of phony hypocrites, to me " What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say."…..Emerson.

Smile and greet me with your heart and not just with your face muscles if your are sincerely glad to see me, otherwise don't bother, I can more often than not tell difference these days. For instance, when I meet and greet at new church and someone says to me: "I am glad you are here," sometimes, what they're really saying is "I'm glad you're here…..just not right here." I usually say: "thank-you, you have a beautiful church," what I really mean is…..just not this beautiful church.

To the man that prays with his heart, the whole planet is his church. (heart = soul/spirit) Listening with your heart is meditation, prayer is speaking with your heart. Meditation has the potential for immediate knowledge of something instinctively, without actual physical evidence for it. Like speech we all possess this innate quality, slowly you begin to trust and use these perceptions as a natural reflex, like smell or taste.

So you see the religious institutions are responsible directly or indirectly, perhaps unintentionally, for many of the things they themselves call sins. I like to call this behavior, ( the seven deadly sins) temporary social Band-Aids for chronic spiritual wounds, but the remedies don't seem to heal, must be changed often and is never a cure. Without holistic treatments these, physical, social, spiritual maladies are progressive…get worst, the illness metastasizes….spreads to others in the body of humanity, and in all cases fatal, it will kill us….due to a self will run riot.

Apathy is what I see today, indifference is spiritual-self mutilation, don't know and don't care is blasphemy, conformity to these attitudes are fatal eternal errors, they can be corrected. Though it is interesting that the cures for spiritual disease are free……the seven holy virtues are chastity, abstinence, temperance, diligence, patience, kindness, and humility. I am guilty of most, the deadly ones, at some time or another, I am working on the latter virtuous list more these days. Some of it must be working, people no longer shout: "hide the women and children" when I roll up somewhere.

Jung was one of the first of modern times with strong ties to the scientific community bold enough to say that we are spiritual beings having a human experience. Carl's work with Bill Wilson and the oxford group, helping to lay the foundations of alcoholics anonymous, the twelve spiritual principals has proven time and again that Dr. Jung was onto something from a higher authority. Most all of the successful self-help support groups use a variation of this same12 step spiritual program tailored to fit that particular obsessive/compulsive disorder.

 Those twelve steps can and do neatly fit anyone sane, drunk or sober, does not conflict with any religious teaching, they are a simple roadmap to becoming a healthy, happy, wholesome, productive spiritual being. Something that is really simple to understand: Trust God, Clean house (internal baggage), Help others. Repeat until it becomes an incurable habit. Any faith that apply these are going to be on the righteous side and in tune with His universe. The teachings apply universally to every human on the planet, not just to users and abusers. In my case, I thought I was a larry with substance abuse problem, turns out I was spiritually sick substance abuser with a larry problem. This obsessive behavior was only a symptom and not the real problem. Denial of the problem because of pride only made things that much worse. Self-medicating was like pouring gas on a fire.

I have to seek through prayer and meditation to improve my conscious contact with God to grow spiritually. If I have no time for prayer and meditation, I will have lots of time for sickness and trouble. "We turn to God for help when our foundations are shaking, only to learn it is God who is shaking them."…..Charles C West

Religion has its place in society and many receive the Word there, the truth is there, but that does not replace my commitment to God. Actually, I like to go to church and I have visited many of the different faiths edifices. Each body of faith has its own strengths and weaknesses like people. I don't know when it happened but I feel the church has lost its primary mission, socialize our children and help the needy. One day those children are going to be in charge of that church and I am afraid if Oprah and Dr. Phil, or whoever is the next feel good guru, will have more influence there than God. I do not look for God in those places anymore because my God goes with me everywhere I go, besides God has never gotten lost and had to be found, people look for him in the wrong place, that's all. Everyone must work out their own salvation. I don't expect to find blessings in church either, although sometimes I do.

 The greatest blessings I have ever received was when I did the right thing when no one was looking. God is not going to ask me how many times the preacher prayed for me, but he is going to know how many times I prayed for the preacher. I know my views are strong, but if my beliefs don't fit everyone then they are fit for no one. Especially the One that created the universe of which I am irrevocably part of.


The spiritual promises from the aa big book, "If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are half way through. We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others. That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows. Self-seeking will slip away. Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change. Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us. We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us. We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves."
"Are these extravagant promises? We think not. They are being fulfilled among us—sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. They will always materialize if we work for them." Find you heart inside your spiritual self and you will know He was never lost outside.


"To me, God is Truth and Love;
God is ethics and morality:
God is fearlessness.
God is the source of Light and Life
and yet He is above and beyond all these.
God is conscience...
He is a personal God to those who need His personal presence.
He is embodied to those who need His touch.
He is the purest essence.
He simply is to those who have faith.
He is all things to all men."
~ Mahatma Gandhi ~

Who am I to argue with this mans definition of God? Who can? There is no argument to be had that will hold up to this scrutiny. I can only say that Gandhi knows God. Do you?
Fight the good fight!! With you minds as weapons…………
………………………….kosmicdebris……………………………….