Archive for the ‘Religion’ Category

Raise Your Consciousness Today

Saturday, February 14th, 2009

The best way to raise your consciousness is to do things that stimulate and open your mind. We live most of our lives in a box, hardly ever going out of it. It’s the box that our belief system fits in. We’ll easily discount anything that lies outside the box and blindly accept anything that’s inside this box. If I were to ask you how you can prove that something exists independent of your awareness, maybe you’d say yes and maybe you’d say no. It has nothing to do with proof because saying yes is an unprovable assumption. Saying no is also an unprovable assumption. How do you know this world doesn’t work like a dream? Where only what you experience is real? I challenge you to prove that something exists independent of your awareness. When you are away from your family members, can you prove they don’t exist if you’re not currently aware of them?

Our reality is up for question all the time. Most people deny things that don’t fit. If they see a psychic on television, it has to be scripted. If they hear about a haunted house, those people have schizophrenia. It doesn’t matter the perspective. Most people will spend their entire lives in a box filled with unprovable assumptions. Why? I guess because it’s too much work to question what is around you and think for yourself. It’s easier to just accept what other people tell you. Let them do the thinking for you. That way you can relax and watch an episode of your favorite TV show, where all the characters share the same perspective as you.

If you think about most major religions, much of their teachings were good, but the reality they lived in was so very different than the one we live in today. I’m not going to condemn them for thinking the Earth was the center of the universe and that it was flat. And if you did dare question that “fact,” you were thrown in jail. Imagine what “facts” we’ll know tomorrow. The fact of the matter is that the only thing you can be completely sure of existing is your own awareness. You know you have a consciousness. You don’t know anything for sure except what your consciousness feeds to you. Everything else is a big question mark.

Just open your mind to this perspective and see where it takes you. That you’re basically living in a dream world where the only thing that exists is what you are consciously perceiving at this moment. See where it takes you. I guess you could call it the most basic belief system and the most sound. Everything in it is provable. Your experience of it proves it. If there is anything out there other than your awareness, you can’t say it is there or not because you are not currently experiencing it. You can choose to believe what you want about the rest, but know that you could be wrong. But you really don’t know that because in order to prove something exists, you must become aware of it. I’ll say that I challenge you to prove that I exist independent of your awareness. You can’t do it. Even if you came down to Myrtle Beach and saw me, you would then be aware of me and therefore could prove I exist.

It’s hard to break out of your box. It’s hard to say to yourself that many of your beliefs unrprovable. When you start opening this box, it makes things very complicated. You’ll be more unsure than you’ve ever been in your entire life. But then you’ll start to notice things that actually happen through first-hand experience that will add to your belief system. I say don’t believe something unless you’ve experienced it yourself. Otherwise, you could be buying a lie. Firsthand knowledge of your reality will make you confident in your belief system. Unless you’ve experienced talking to dead relatives or other spirits, how can you possibly believe in life after death? Because some authority figure told you so? But you are free to choose your own beliefs.

I’m just saying it is stupid to take someone else’s word on the nature of reality. Think about it. Those people could be completely full of shit. You’re the only one who knows what you’ve experienced. So choose based on your experiences. You can use the morals from other belief systems if you feel intuitively that they’re right, but never take any religious text literally. How do you know Jesus walked on water? How do you know he didn’t? You don’t.

I think our beliefs do shape our reality, so it makes sense to keep beliefs that empower you. It does not make sense to keep beliefs that make you powerless. If you choose to believe something, make sure it is congruent with the reality you currently experience. Otherwise, it will be nothing but delusion. If you believe you’re a multi-millionaire, but have $200 in the bank, wouldn’t people consider you to be crazy? They would bring you back to reality by saying, “You’re broke!” You can intend for your money to increase, but saying you are a millionaire is just deluding yourself. You have to look at your beliefs and see if they accurately match the reality you experience. Otherwise, why do you believe what you believe? Because of some old book?

If you found this post helpful or whatever, please feel free to donate to my website. Perhaps you could start tithing to the Church I’m building…The Church of Consciousness.

Astonomy and Spirituality

Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007

Astronomy (n): The study of stars which makes humans realize how insignifcant they really are.

The universe is gigantic. Gigantic beyond comprehension even. Billions and trillions of stars, millions of galaxies, an infinite amount of energy, somewhere out there, in the universe. It sure makes you feel small. It makes everything on Earth seem so insignificant with respect to the infinity of the universe. But why is it so big? What does it mean for us that we are so much less important than we initially thought? Most people resist taking on a cosmic perspective, at least in my life, and I think I know why. Because it is overwhelming and kind of depressing at first. Even taking on a global perspective is kind of demotivating, if looking at your life with respect to everyone who has ever lived on this planet. It just makes you realize your time is limited here.

But if we are living on a spinning ball, making revolutions around the sun, in a heirarchy ofmillions and billions of other systems like this, some dying, some being born, then what are we ? Why are we here? That is the one question that everyone wants to know the answer to. Some so badly they will buy just about any story someone can come up with. If someone says that we are here to learn a lesson or that there is an invisible man in the sky judging you, that you should strive to do good and not evil, people listen with great intent. And it is not a bad thing to give meaning to your life, but in a way, isn’t it a form of denial? I mean, I do believe there is life after death, a spiritual life, but I still question what that will mean, or if it will all be revealed to me once I cross over (but not with Jon Edwards). And when discussing the meaning of life with the close-minded evangelical-like believers, they will never change their perspective or even consider yours. Which is a recipe for disaster if you ask me.

Sure, there may be, and probably is, a spiritual side of life, and it is more empowering to believe that after you die, you will still exist. The other perspective is worthless, is demotivating, and will bring you a very depressing life because if there is no meaning, what is the point? But if you believe that there is something beyond this crazy planet and the whole universe, then you will most likely have less fear because no matter what happens to your physical body, you still exist in some form, therefore nothing can really destroy you, the essence of your being.

But if we are spiritual in nature, why are we living on some gigantic sphere, spinning around in circles around another even bigger sphere, along with other spheres, and other stars, for billions and billions of years, forever and ever and ever? I don’t know. I still have not figured out what this means. There has to be some reason why all of this is here. It’s not just for us to look at. Before us, these things were still here, so there has to be some purpose to it. Animals don’t question these things, they just live their lives. They instinctively must know something we do not. They must already know something about the infinity of time and space and are just allowed to live. The human, with his inquisitive and rational nature, is always wanting answers to questions that, from his/her perspective, are unanswerable.

Life goes on. Like some roller coaster ride that never ends, the universe does what it does best. And we stay here, trapped on some blue marble in the perspective of the whole universe, our lives nothing but a cosmic wink in the grand scheme, and for some reason we still find a way to get out of bed in the morning. Even though we either consider life meaningless or timeless (in the spiritual sense). I guess the way to look at it is, you could either believe life is meaningless and be apathetic, lethargic, and careless about your actions, which don’t really matter, or you can believe in a spiritual life beyond the grave, and make an effort to enrich your life here before moving on to whatever lies ahead. It would seem to me that option number two, the latter, would make a better choice to live a fulfilling life. And even if I am wrong, at least I lived a good life.

I would like to close this post with abstract thinking I would like to share with you. Imagine getting a snapshot of the universe. Of the whole thing. And pretend you were looking from far above at this thing, and what would be outside of it? How would this provide a bigger context for living? Would this solve anything at all or would it only create more confusion? We are imbedded in this system, so we have no way to see the whole thing simultaneously. Maybe doing so would give us some sort of answer. Maybe not. Have a cosmic day.

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Fasting

Saturday, April 28th, 2007

I’ve been considering fasting for some time, I just can’t do it. Can’t make a commitment. Not eating for days on end, not something I can make a conscious effort to do. I am aware of the potential benefits, especially of a juice fast, where all I would consume are fresh juices, but then I’ll have to clean the juicer three or four times a day, not something I want to do. I realize that fasting is a detox mechanism which allows for repair and gives my digestive system a rest. If I did a water fast, I am sure I would get sick of water after a certain amount of time and move on to heavier things, like broth, then juice, then eventually something tastier–soda. I’m just curious as to how a fast is constituted and how I can get a doctor to write me a note for three to five days off work so I can try this whole fasting thing and see how I like it. I think this whole fasting dream I have is all a scheme for me to get off work a few more days each week.

“I can’t come into work today. I have toxins in my body and if I let them stay there too long, I could die. I need to detox for at least five days, maybe six.” I would have to do it in the raspy voice I usually use to call in sick, a voice that sounds like I just got out of bed and haven’t said a word all day. I bet I could pull that off, if I had some sort of research on it. I would most likely try and break the fast at breakfast. That way I coud be doing one of those double entondre (?) things where I can say I’m breaking my fast at breakfast. I may have to hire a maid to make me juices and to go shopping for me and maybe I can pull it off. I can feel all the accumulated gunk from years and years of pizzas and doughnuts, not to mention that Mountain Dew addiction I had for the first nineteen years of my life. My arteries are probably lined with High Fructose Corn Syrup, which makes for a nice lubricant I hear.

As I’ve always said, it is easier to not do something than it is to do it unless it is an addiction, like a sugar addiction or a food addiction. No matter how lethargic I am, no matter how late it is, I can always muster the energy to go over to the cupboard and get myself a high-sugar, low-fiber poison snack and shove it in my mouth for an emotional lift and sugar high. I think maybe the Fit for Life diet gave me this sugar addiction with their whole, “nothing but fruit in the morning” approach. What did they think was going to happen? They say, “Have as much fruit as you want, but do not overeat.” What? Does that make sense? No. It’s a living paradox. Here I am, eating pints of blueberries, followed by six bananas, and then sixteen Medjool dates, and I’m still hungry, but not hungry in the stomach sense, hungry in my mouth, the salivary glands are going wild, and I know what my problem is, a sugar addiction.

I still eat fruit, but I need some time away from food. I need to find a practical time to do this fast, I may even request some days off from work to accomplish it. My family will inevitably think I’m crazy, but I think that is for the best anyway. If everyone thinks you’re crazy, you’re either right, or crazy. Sometimes the only reason I eat is because I think I have to. I’m not hungry, I just feel if I don’t, people will start saying, “You didn’t eat lunch? Why?” Because I didn’t feel like it. But that’s not a good enough answer. Going against conventional wisdom takes more courage than you think.

If I really want to scare the people I know, I should start quoting the Bible while I fast, every day and every night. Start saying how fasting is the only way to salvation and that if I do not do this, I will never get closer to the Lord. And He is the one wa all long to get close to. And it’s all here in this pamphlet. I should start going door to door, like a Jehvovah’s Witness. You know, maybe their theme song should be, “Knock, knock, knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.” Going off topic has become more and more familiar to me in the past six to eight months. But I accept it because I accept myself unconditionally. And I never edit because if I think something, I think it for a reason and there is no reason to cut out part of the process, like I see on those reality shows. They’ll cut to someone screaming at another person and don’t show how that all started. It gives me no basis for judgment.

Anyway, fasting is something I think I should try and I will post results when I start to fast. I’ll have some time to post because I will not be eating. When everyone is around the dinner table, eating their roast duck, I will be slaving away at my master, my computer, documenting how it feels not to do something everyone regards as necessary. I don’t want to make a big thing out of it, though. It’s not like I’m going on a hunger strike to fight world hunger or poverty. I’m doing it because I can. I can make a choice to not do something. It is strikingly similar to my voting fast. I’ve never registered to vote in 21 1/2 years because where I currently live, my vote would be drowned out by a bunch of conservative Republican voters. And voting for yourself makes you look narcissistic anyway. Probably wouldn’t be the best idea. That is all I have for today. Come back soon for more insanity.

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Acceptance vs. Denial

Tuesday, March 27th, 2007

Give me the strength to accept the things I cannot change. Give me the corage to change the things I do not like. And give me the wisdom to know the difference between the two. I guess that is some prayer from either Christianity or Cahtolicism. It goes something like that. And it is a very powerful quote, as it talks about acceptance vs. denial in a way that I believe we all can relate to.

We all have things in our lives we do not like or wish to change. There are some things we have power to change, while others may or may not be within reach, at least at this point in time. The wisdom to know the difference is a journey in self-exploration. We have to look at ourselves objectively sometimes to see what it is we should change, if anything, as life is an ongoing process of evolution. There are some things you cannot change about yourself or your environment, at least at your state of awareness. There are others you think you cannot change, but could with some hard work and perseverence.

If you are six hundred pounds and do not think you will ever lose the weight, that you just have to accept yourself the way you are, I encourage you to look at all the experiiences you are missing out on because of your large stature. Look at how you have to buy two ariplaine tickets if you would like to fly. Realize that anything is possible. And you may not be able to change the things you want right now, but as life moves on, these things could very well become possible. I have heard the story a thousand times before, “The doctor said I would never walk again. But here I am walking.” Just because the odds are stacked against you, that does not mean you have to succumb to apathy and learned helplessness.

And do not deny what you are getting either. You have to accept the truth in all parts of your life. It is only when we accept the truth that we are able to grow further. It does not make sense to lie to yourself on a consistent basis to hold up this facade that has a very weak foundation to it, eventually crumbling. You lower your awareness when you lie. It is obvious that the last statement is true because you are trying to convince yourself that something you are not experiencing is true. So the first step to acceptance is truth, and the second step to changing or choosing to accept your situation is coming to terms with it, and letting it be a part of you once again.

No matter how bad or good a person you are, self-acceptance and self-worth are to big keys to a fulfilling life. When you fully and unconditionally accept yourself, you become more open to possibilities to improve yourelf. It does sound a bit counter-intuitive, but because you accept yourself no matter what, you are no longer afraid to try the activities you were previously fearful of doing. Unconditional acceptance is the answer, but if something is not the way you wish it to be, go ahead and move towards changing it.

As a personal example, in my life, I no longer find my job interesting or fulfilling. I am so close to muttering the words, “I quit,” but the repercussions from my family may be something like this, “You can’t quit your job until you have another one.” Well, moving towards not having a job is nice, at least for me, as I intend to start a business in the near future, although the full details of that business are not yet on paper. I intend to cut down on my consumption in order to build up money to start this business eventually. The only thing that is really holding me back is the people around me, the people who will tell me that I will probably fail, and that may be true, but the experience will be worth it. I have to learn to let go of outcomes, which I am now practicing and will practice for the remainder of my life. Attachment to anything is the root of all suffering anyway. Make no appointment and you’ll have no disappointments. Lower your expectations, but still do whatever it is you want to do. Accept the outcome, and move on from there. That is all I have to say.

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Going Home

Monday, March 5th, 2007

We all long for a place we like to call home, a place where we feel secure, and nothing can harm us. Home is where the heart is, as well as the spirit. But where is home? And how do we get there? I am not talking about the place where you grew up, more of a spiritual home, a place where you feel at rest, in total harmony with everything around you. I guess it is hard to describe in words, as it is more of a feeling. A place where we feel at peace with everything. I wish I could describe the feelings I have about this place, this destination, that we all long to go to someday. Could it be a heaven of sorts? Maybe. I know such a place exists, I just have to experience it firsthand. And the process is going on now. One with the world and all of that good stuff.

Here is the thing. Once you realize you are a spiritual being having a physical experience, it should put some of your fears to rest. I guess it is hard for some people to conceptualize this, as they constantly look for proof. I say the proof is within, an all-knowing self inside every one of us. This is a tool I am using to try and rid myself of fear. If I look at my physical body as simply a vehicle my spirit is using temporarily to experience the world as it is today, I can somewhat let go of the whole mortality thing, and just allow myself to experience life as it comes, do what it is I want, and pass onto something else when my vehicle “runs out of gas.” If you view life in this way, or in a way like it is some sort of dream, which is also a possibility, you somehow are no longer afraid. Nothing can really harm your spirit, the only part of you that it eternal, so everything you do and experience is less fearsome.

However, I would not recommend behaving too recklessly at this point. Do not do things that will have negative consequences in physical reality because that will only inhibit your spiritual progress. I believe we are all here for a reason. Maybe we do not know what the reason is, but we do know inherently right from wrong. We can make decisions that will lead us towards progress or we can go on a destructive path. Every thought, every action, is a choice. And once we realize that, it makes choosing to live an ideal life easier. It still is not simple, but it gets easier every day.

Knowing that no matter how bad your physical body becomes in terms of condition, that your spirit remains immortal is a key to everlasting prosperity. Look at people like Hellen Keller and Steven Hawkins. These are people who have been dealt some tough lives and yet still have made a difference in the world. There is something inside them that allowed these people to make a difference in the world. Some internal force that we still have not come to understand completely, except on a completely intrinsic level. I believe “going home” symbolizes the complete realization that we are more than just our physical bodies, that life, or existence, does go on after our physical bodies pass away. Otherwise, what is the meaning of life but to peddle products and keep the world turning?

There is a part of you that is spiritual in nature and one of the best things you can do is get to know that person. Some people call it their higher self, others intuition, but whatever you call it, it is something special to get it touch with this part of you. If you don’t believe in this sort of stuff, then that is exactly what you will percieve. But if you open yourself up just a little bit to this idea, you will start to “get it.” These words may be here in the physical world, but they were spawned from the spiritual realm, a collection of subconscious thought and spiritual wisdom that only my higher self and I could have possibly put together. I encourage you to do the same, as it has worked wonders for me. I am still not 100% on the whole reality theory, but every day I seem to get closer in closer to thinking that reality is almost 100% subjective. We shall see. Good day.

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