Love is my Religion
I meditate daily. Mercy, acceptance and understanding are my mantras. Harmony is my goal. Love is my religion. My personal philosophy is an amalgamation of bits and pieces from here and there. With Southern Baptist roots and a Zen Buddhist core. I dont believe that there is only one path to salvation or becoming one with God. When I refer to God my idea of God is not the Christian mythological God, or the giant white bearded father sitting on a golden throne in the sky. My idea of God is closer to the Hindu belief in the ultimate reality, the source of all creation, or movens non motus the mover that is not moved. Basically, we live in the universe of cause and effect. Meaning, everything that exists is created or caused by something. Ergo, if you go back far enough, the ultimate cause of all that exists is the movens non motus, or God. Furthermore, I believe that is all there is, God and the universe. I reject the idea of hell and that true heaven is God, or being one with God. I believe that God is the true reality of the eternal ideas of truth, justice, beauty, compassion, mercy and grace. The idea of hell, where our souls are condemned to an eternity of pain and suffering is contradictory to the nature of God. There are no evil men, just evil acts. We are all essentially good, and all have potential for evil. We have all strayed from the path of righteousness, and that is why Jesus teachings are those of forgiveness and mercy. Why would someone teach that just to burn those who are sick or strayed from the path? That would be hypocrisy of the ultimate degree. If God were to accept all those that pass from this earth, sick or healthy, is an act of true unconditional love and mercy. That is not to say we should be free to do as we please, we should all strive to be good, responsible people. We are all connected; we are all children of God. We should strive to help and ease the suffering of our brother; we should love our fellow man. That is why I meditate on the words of mercy, acceptance and understanding. These are integral parts of love. You cannot have love without them.
I believe in mercy. Mercy is forgiveness; it is compassion for all living things, which is ultimately respect for life. Ive taken lives before and understand now that it is the most grievous of crimes and that there is always another way. One should always avoid taking the life of another being. Even if I were to be wronged, I hope that I am strong enough to forgive.
Growing up as an only child to a single parent I had a lot of anger and resentment, especially towards male authoritative figures. I naively thought that swallowing my anger and passing it off as me being above anger was a falsehood. As I grew older and experienced more I learned that anger is a part of who we are. Denying my anger is like denying my skin, so I learned to accept this fact and am closer to peace and harmony. I also learned to be accepting of all people and beliefs. I dont have to necessarily agree with them, but I will respect their beliefs barring that they dont oppose to a persons right to life, self-determination or freedom of choice. Acceptance leads to understanding, understanding eliminates the unknown, therefore abolishing fear.
Fear is the root to many of the worlds woes. Fear of the unknown leads to prejudice, violence and many of the other maladies that plague us. When somebody challenges our beliefs, we are quick to react with violence and retaliation. We react this way not because we are so sure of our faith, but quite the opposite. It is because we are unsure. We are unsure because we dont know for certain, which is why we should forgive those who wronged us. We dont know. We dont know why a person did what they did, where they came from and what led them down this path. We need to understand that they are another human being and a mirror until ourselves and a reflection of the soul. It is because we are all connected. Each one of us interacting and reacting to each other. Each collision of souls sets off a chain of possibilities, forever altering the course of our reality. We move and dance in time, each piece a gear reacting in harmony in the great machine. We move to rhythm, the heartbeat as the primary sound of the womb. Sound is merely vibration, and vibration in theory is key to energy, which is the core to life. All matter holds some form of energy and therefore all matter possess some form of life. Life is the essence of the divine, God is in everything and everything is in God. We are all connected. We are different because of natural law; diversity is the key to preservation of life. Once we understand that our differences are a necessity, while we are all the same, we will be one step closer to understanding and therefore one step closer to peace, one step closer to harmony.
We live in a universe that relies on a balance between its dualistic natures. Like the Tao, I attempt to find harmony in everything. I agree with Confucius and his idea of the noble man. We live in a world of societies and civilizations and therefore there should be an order to such. But these societies and civilizations exist within nature and therefore are subject to natural law. I believe the idea of civilization can exist harmoniously within the laws of nature but mans hubris and avarice cause us to trample on these laws and throw our world into disharmony.
Ultimately, what all of this boils down to is love. Love of self, love for your fellow man, love for the world and love for God. My philosophy is simple, be a good person, treat others with respect, have forgiveness in your heart, keep an open mind and listen to what people have to say. The secrets of the universe arent secrets if you just open your eyes and simply wake up.
Ima Manic
I meditate daily. Mercy, acceptance and understanding are my mantras. Harmony is my goal. Love is my religion. My personal philosophy is an amalgamation of bits and pieces from here and there. With Southern Baptist roots and a Zen Buddhist core. I dont believe that there is only one path to salvation or becoming one with God. When I refer to God my idea of God is not the Christian mythological God, or the giant white bearded father sitting on a golden throne in the sky. My idea of God is closer to the Hindu belief in the ultimate reality, the source of all creation, or movens non motus the mover that is not moved. Basically, we live in the universe of cause and effect. Meaning, everything that exists is created or caused by something. Ergo, if you go back far enough, the ultimate cause of all that exists is the movens non motus, or God. Furthermore, I believe that is all there is, God and the universe. I reject the idea of hell and that true heaven is God, or being one with God. I believe that God is the true reality of the eternal ideas of truth, justice, beauty, compassion, mercy and grace. The idea of hell, where our souls are condemned to an eternity of pain and suffering is contradictory to the nature of God. There are no evil men, just evil acts. We are all essentially good, and all have potential for evil. We have all strayed from the path of righteousness, and that is why Jesus teachings are those of forgiveness and mercy. Why would someone teach that just to burn those who are sick or strayed from the path? That would be hypocrisy of the ultimate degree. If God were to accept all those that pass from this earth, sick or healthy, is an act of true unconditional love and mercy. That is not to say we should be free to do as we please, we should all strive to be good, responsible people. We are all connected; we are all children of God. We should strive to help and ease the suffering of our brother; we should love our fellow man. That is why I meditate on the words of mercy, acceptance and understanding. These are integral parts of love. You cannot have love without them.
I believe in mercy. Mercy is forgiveness; it is compassion for all living things, which is ultimately respect for life. Ive taken lives before and understand now that it is the most grievous of crimes and that there is always another way. One should always avoid taking the life of another being. Even if I were to be wronged, I hope that I am strong enough to forgive.
Growing up as an only child to a single parent I had a lot of anger and resentment, especially towards male authoritative figures. I naively thought that swallowing my anger and passing it off as me being above anger was a falsehood. As I grew older and experienced more I learned that anger is a part of who we are. Denying my anger is like denying my skin, so I learned to accept this fact and am closer to peace and harmony. I also learned to be accepting of all people and beliefs. I dont have to necessarily agree with them, but I will respect their beliefs barring that they dont oppose to a persons right to life, self-determination or freedom of choice. Acceptance leads to understanding, understanding eliminates the unknown, therefore abolishing fear.
Fear is the root to many of the worlds woes. Fear of the unknown leads to prejudice, violence and many of the other maladies that plague us. When somebody challenges our beliefs, we are quick to react with violence and retaliation. We react this way not because we are so sure of our faith, but quite the opposite. It is because we are unsure. We are unsure because we dont know for certain, which is why we should forgive those who wronged us. We dont know. We dont know why a person did what they did, where they came from and what led them down this path. We need to understand that they are another human being and a mirror until ourselves and a reflection of the soul. It is because we are all connected. Each one of us interacting and reacting to each other. Each collision of souls sets off a chain of possibilities, forever altering the course of our reality. We move and dance in time, each piece a gear reacting in harmony in the great machine. We move to rhythm, the heartbeat as the primary sound of the womb. Sound is merely vibration, and vibration in theory is key to energy, which is the core to life. All matter holds some form of energy and therefore all matter possess some form of life. Life is the essence of the divine, God is in everything and everything is in God. We are all connected. We are different because of natural law; diversity is the key to preservation of life. Once we understand that our differences are a necessity, while we are all the same, we will be one step closer to understanding and therefore one step closer to peace, one step closer to harmony.
We live in a universe that relies on a balance between its dualistic natures. Like the Tao, I attempt to find harmony in everything. I agree with Confucius and his idea of the noble man. We live in a world of societies and civilizations and therefore there should be an order to such. But these societies and civilizations exist within nature and therefore are subject to natural law. I believe the idea of civilization can exist harmoniously within the laws of nature but mans hubris and avarice cause us to trample on these laws and throw our world into disharmony.
Ultimately, what all of this boils down to is love. Love of self, love for your fellow man, love for the world and love for God. My philosophy is simple, be a good person, treat others with respect, have forgiveness in your heart, keep an open mind and listen to what people have to say. The secrets of the universe arent secrets if you just open your eyes and simply wake up.
Ima Manic