🚀 go-pugleaf

On Dec 26, 9:15 am, V <vf...@aol.com> wrote:
> On Dec 26, 9:13�am, V <vf...@aol.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> > On Dec 24, 11:20 pm, "Carl Sagan's billions" <mm2te...@yahoo.com>
> > wrote:
>
> > > I struggled for a long time, in my younger years, trying to
> > > understand the basic doctrines, the core beliefs, the philosophies,
> > > the essence and contradictions in Old versus New Testament, the
> > > behavior of warrior Christian nations wreaking havoc in non-Christian
> > > colonies (and still conducting horrible wars on non-Christian people
> > > in Asia), Genesis, Noah, the many other stories in the Bible, etc..
>
> > > Then slowly I came to understand several truths described below,
> > > which eventually enabled me to gradually throw off the yoke,
> > > the shackles and the blinders of a long childhood indoctrination in
> > > Christianity, and �I �WAS �FREE ----- FOREVER:
>
> > > 1. All religions and gods are 'man' made, made and made up
> > > by humans, not necessarily to deceive but as a result of new
> > > ideas and concepts that evolved and were then accepted as
> > > the (new) truth, the (new) philosophy of life, the (new) gospel,
> > > the (new) 'true' religion.
>
> > > 2. The Christian concept and definition of a 'soul' is untenable.
> > > Why? Evolution is a fact but nowhere in the long line of evolution
> > > was the 'soul' (or something like the soul that makes us immortal)
> > > suddenly inserted in a certain species at a discrete point in time.
>
> > > If I assume that the soul was suddenly inserted in a living
> > > being, e.g., 1 million years ago, we must then argue that his
> > > or her father and mother did not have a soul. We cannot.
>
> > > This means:
> > > All living beings have a soul or no living beings have a soul. �As I
> > > don't believe a worm has a soul, I must conclude that the concept
> > > of a soul in each human being can only be a manmade construct.
> > > A manmade construct because we have a need to believe that
> > > we (or at least our 'spirit' or our 'soul') are immortal and will
> > > exist forever.
>
> > > We fear death, we fear being gone forever.
> > > We want to deny death, we need to believe we are immortal.
> > > And we can't avoid to fabricate a reason for our existence.
>
> > > 3. There is no heaven and hell. All religions are manmade, and
> > > the concepts of heaven and hell are manmade. They were created
> > > when social groups evolved culturally: �To keep individual behavior
> > > in line and within boundaries - to be beneficial to the group or to
> > > its leaders. Heaven was a carrot, hell was the stick.
>
> > > 4. The Christian dogma of sin, with human beings having free choice
> > > to obey or disobey, is untenable, as 'sin', killing, fighting, etc.,
> > > already existed millions of years before human beings came about.
>
> > > That means in the long line of evolution there was never a discrete
> > > point where the 'first' human being suddenly had free choice to obey
> > > or disobey. �That also means the dogma of Christ's death at the cross
> > > to atone for our sins is untenable. Human beings evolved and never
> > > (suddenly) had free choice to obey or dis-obey (=sin).
>
> > > The manmade Christian God sacrificed his son to atone for all
> > > sins forever for all times. That brilliant idea of hope and redemption
> > > and forgiveness arose from much older pagan religions that had human
> > > sacrifices at their core. The ultimate sacrifice for redemption was
> > > to offer up your own son, as in the Abraham-Isaac story. That's why
> > > 'man' eventually came up with the idea that Christ - the Son - was
> > > sacrificed by the Father and died for the sins of all mankind.
>
> > > As our species homo sapiens evolved over millions of years, there was
> > > never an Adam and Eve 6000 years ago. That means Eve disobeying
> > > God and eating from the fruit never happened. That means the 'fall'
> > > in the garden of Eden never happened. �That also means a 'fall' e.g.
> > > a million years earlier never happened. That means the philosophy
> > > of Christ having to die for our original sin, for us disobeying God,
> > > has no basis in fact. �Our ancestors millions of years ago did
> > > not have the intellectual capacity nor the choice to obey or disobey.
>
> > > 5. The Christian concept that you can only be saved by accepting
> > > Christ as your savior is untenable. As over 4.5 billion on earth are
> > > not Christians and may not even know about Jesus Christ,
> > > it is illogical to assume that God automatically condemns
> > > 4.5 billion out of 6.5 billion to hell = eternal suffering.
>
> > > Also there are over 100-200 billion stars in our own galaxy,
> > > with a total of 100-200 billion other galaxies in the visible
> > > universe, containing billions of inhabited planets. It is illogical
> > > to assume that God sacrificed his son on billions of planets.
>
> > > 6. All religions are manmade, which explains the huge variety of
> > > religions. Any evolving human society develops beliefs about life
> > > and death, which then often morph into absolute beliefs and then
> > > finally into structured beliefs = religion.
>
> > > That's why there are so many religions, so many spin-offs of existing
> > > religions, and why so many new spin-offs and denominations are
> > > created all the time, all over the world. There are always new
> > > thinkers with new ideas, creative thinkers who strongly reject the
> > > older ideas.
>
> > > 7. All religions and their spin-offs are manmade, and the concept of
> > > 'God' including the 'God' of Christianity, Islam and Judaism is man
> > > made.
>
> > > As nowhere in the material world we see physical acts/actions by
> > > a 'God' on matter, there is no reason to assume that an 'immaterial'
> > > God like the Christian God (who controls, guards, acts on matter
> > > = interferes in our world) exists.
>
> > > 8. So we have to face the fact, with courage and logic, and conclude
> > > that: � GOD IS ABSENT, �IS DEAD �OR �DOES NOT EXIST.
>
> > > As I find it illogical that if an all powerful God existed, he would
> > > decide to disappear from our material world = universe into some
> > > other universe, or even die, i.e., disappear from all possible
> > > universes, there is only one conclusion left:
>
> > > There is no immaterial God applying material forces on or into
> > > our physical environment.
>
> > > That means all physical and chemical occurrences can be
> > > explained (sooner or later) without having to introduce a
> > > supernatural and �'immaterial' �being capable of and actively
> > > acting on matter. �Therefore the conclusion is that (the Christian)
> > > God does not exist and was made up.
>
> > > You can only exist if you are matter or tied to matter.
> > > You only exist if you can act upon matter. When tied to matter,
> > > 'one' can be observed, measured, etc., and thus be proven to exist.
>
> > > Example:
> > > In the tsunami near Sumatra up to 100,000 innocent children
> > > were killed in just one hour (in total an estimated 220,000 died).
> > > 'God' did not do it.
> > > 'Satan' did not do it.
> > > Humans did not do it.
> > > The earth core is cooling, forcing huge plates to move,
> > > which occasionally rupture or fracture into earthquakes,
> > > volcanic eruptions, etc., which then can cause terrible
> > > natural catastrophes such as this tsunami.
> > > Nowhere did or does the 'hand of God' act anywhere.
> > > He did not cause it, he did not prevent it.
>
> > > 9. The mystery of matter and the most crucial question and
> > > profound mystery of all
>
> > > --- 'WHY WE (made of matter) EXIST' �----
>
> > > does not mean we have to assume an all powerful being like the
> > > Christian God who creates, controls, acts on matter,
> > > and rules and monitors everything.
>
> > > In the last 1000 years more and more mysteries have been explained.
> > > In the coming thousands of years many more mysteries will be
> > > resolved. That means religious beliefs get pushed back more and
> > > more, away from the current simple absolute religious 'truths'
> > > and beliefs as described in 'holy' books. �Religions always consist
> > > of a mixture of man made philosophies, myths, theories, taboos,
> > > legends, laws, rules, remnants of pagan religions, etc.,
> > > explanations from hundreds of years or even much longer ago,
> > > and are being pushed back or voided by science and much
> > > more rational explanations.
>
> > > That also means a religion such as Christianity can only survive if
> > > it develops a much better explanation and rationale for the mystery
> > > of matter and life, and for our existence. However Christianity
> > > cannot �'re-engineer' itself. It cannot offer a science-based
> > > explanation of life, or even reform itself into a more rational
> > > philosophy of life.
>
> > > So it will remain an anti-scientific belief system based on fixed
> > > explanations for life and death, made by men and women
> > > who lived hundreds and even thousands of years ago.
>
> > > The contradiction between what we learn from science and the
> > > fixed explanations from hundreds and thousands of years ago
> > > will grow. Christianity and other similar religions likely will
> > > slowly disappear. The psychological human need for spirituality
> > > will not disappear, but the dogmas and beliefs of religions such
> > > as Christianity, Islam and Judaism will become less and less
> > > acceptable to more and more people.
>
> > > 10. The core issue is a direct conflict between:
>
> > > o � the religious/emotional/non-scientific approach or persona and
> > > o � the scientific/rational approach or persona
>
> > > Spirituality will stay in various forms, but dogmatic religions based
> > > on ancient and fixed beliefs will slowly disappear or remain with
> > > smaller and smaller groups of the uneducated or the un-enlightened
> > > or the desperate or the frightened or the indoctrinated.
>
> > > There may be long religious revivals and reactions but
> > > on longer terms science and associated education
> > > will (albeit slowly) void ancient belief systems.
>
> > > However, religions can very well hang on for a long time,
> > > even when becoming unsatisfactory to many more people, e.g. if
> > > and when there are no
>
> ...
>
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I was discussing 'spiritual aspects of living' on various online
forums. One group was a dedicated atheists discussion list with most
members only offering bitter personal attacks instead of adding
anything substantive to the discussion.

But to be fair to these atheists, I've known many a religious fellow
that are just as bitter, if not more so, than atheists I meet. So just
being 'religious' is not a guarantee of being at peace.

Each man made religion contains perfection's as well as imperfections.
It is up to the practitioner or end user to use the tools in the right
way.

The problem is not the wisdom that is defective.

The problem lies with religious practitioners who are defective in
their practice of this wisdom.

The wisdom works - we don't work the wisdom.

Many times we are too busy for peace. As one atheist list member
wrote, 'It took awhile - far too long, really - but I've finally found
that one can find peace by simply being undisturbed."

Yes, peace is our birthright, if we are not destroying it by our own
actions. In order to slow down enough to be able to use peace as a
tool I needed to apply simplicity and renunciation to my life.

I am not an acetic or total renunciate by any means, but I did have to
let go of many peace destroying habits before making room for inner
peace to enter my life. As we get rid of one thing, it make room for
another thing to enter.

The online discussions based in bitterness brought up the question of
"what guiding light do atheists use to be at peace?"

Not much was offered in reply to my question. I got a few answers here
or there.

It seems whenever the discussion turns to 'inner peace' many of the
people I talk with are silent, this even goes for 'pious' Catholic
priests.

But, one fellow on the forum mentioned 'truth and philosophy,' as his
tools - both of these being good answers for peace generation with
proper application. Philosophy plays a big role in my life as well for
providing tools to live at peace.

I also supplement my spiritual path from many other sources as I will
go into below. I am only interested in practical application of
philosophy though and not bickering and arguing over the unanswerable.
So, I prefer truth based discussions over ego based discussions where
the truth gets overshadowed by rhetoric. As someone once wrote ... "if
you don't know the answer then just say so."

see:

http://jesusneverexisted.org/jne/forum/index.php?topic=504.0

I was at a philosophy symposium last year and talked with a professor
about a teaching / mentor relationship he had with Ayn Rand.

He went on to say how after a year they broke up the mentor
relationship on a sour note. After I questioned the professor about
Rand's personal life as well as her state of inner peace and
happiness, I could see that with all her talents of 'smarts' she was
bankrupt when the subject turned to peace smarts, contentment and
happiness.

She was ego based and not practice based when it came to peace
generation.

Furthermore, she not only destroyed her peace, but from the
information that came out of our discussion, the then student's peace
was disturbed at the time and it still sounded disturbed decades later
as a distinguished professor and author. Academic smarts are not the
same as peace smarts.

The branch of philosophy that deals with the study of ethics and
virtue has also helped me along in life.

What is virtue and ethics?

Some authorities define it as 'excellence of the soul' or moral
excellence. (Although the Greeks thought of 'soul and form' in
different terms than say Christians think of soul. For example, the
soul of an eye would be its ability to 'see' and whether this ability
was good or bad would decide whether the soul of an eye had 'virtue'
or excellence.)

The concept for understanding virtue can be told in a story of the
'Ring of Gyges' or 'Myth of Gyges'. This story was taken from Plato's
Republic and recounts how the shepherd Gyges finds a ring on a hand
extending from a crack in the earth and removes the ring from the hand
and puts it on. Gyges discovers the magic ring gives him powers to be
invisible at will and then uses these powers to kill the king, rape
the queen and take over the kingdom. As James Allen tells us in "As A
Man Thinketh" - "Circumstances does not make the man - it reveals him
to himself"

What is virtuous behavior in a flourishing human being?

In readily understandable terms we can help define virtue for us from
this story of Gyges and by asking ourselves the question, "What would
we do if no one was looking or we knew we would not get caught?"

No heaven, no hell, no God, no karma, no police, nothing but us and
our virtue?

Would our actions promote our inner peace as well as the inner peace
of others or would our actions destroy our peace and the peace of
others?

Virtue is not learned from the classroom, other than memorizing
definitions. Remember, a fool can only say what he knows ~ it takes a
wise man to know what he says.

How do we become a success at living a virtuous life and really know
what we say?

As a lecture on Aristotle mentioned: "We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit." We develop it by
practice. Practicing 'excellence of the human soul' is how.

Beside the philosophical studies of ethics and virtue, a Buddhist or
Taoist practice is another good peace developer for anyone to adopt
whether atheist, agnostic or believer.

Buddhists are generally not required to believe or not believe in God,
so anyone can make use of this philosophy irrespective of their
religious beliefs or lack thereof.

But be careful with your Buddhist studies if you decide to head in
this direction. For Buddhism is riddled with useless ego based dogma.
If you can sift through the useless as a freethinker and find the gems
you will do well.

See:

http://jesusneverexisted.org/jne/forum/index.php?topic=9.0

Personally, I've settled on the essence of Buddhism and that is what I
work on and find much peace with this type of simplified Buddhist
practice.

"The Three Pillars of Buddhism"

1- Practicing mindfulness and meditation to develop peace and self
awareness of our own true nature.

2- Accepting the liberating wisdom of impermanence and practicing non-
clinging and a lessening of craving and desires.

3- The development of compassion for others.

In addition to the three pillars, we can use the eightfold path to
guide us. Within the three pillars and the eightfold path are a
lifetime of practice.

No need to get lost in endless debate and spend your precious time in
idle talk that only serves to massage one's ego. Plenty of work to do
right here, right now, unless we prefer to keep our minds distracted
through our perpetual complexities we are so addicted to.

We do need to give some thought of the 'right' way to live as the
eightfold path tells us, so we should never try and be devoid of
thought in our lives, but instead look for a balance and let thought
serve us for once.

"The Eightfold Path"

1. Right View
2. Right Intention
3. Right Speech
4. Right Action
5. Right Livelihood
6. Right Effort
7. Right Mindfulness
8. Right Concentration

How can you differentiate right from wrong?

By peace.

You learn what destroys your peace and the peace of others as well as
what promotes you inner peace and the inner peace of others. Do you
need a teacher for that? Or the Pope to tell you? Or just listen to
peace as the best teacher?

The Five precepts are the 'commandments' more or less for Buddhists.
Although you are not commanded to do a thing. If you wish to live at
peace, then proceed the best you can - but it is your choice.

"The Five Precepts"

1.  Refrain from Killing
2.  Refrain from Stealing
3.  Refrain from Sexual Misconduct
4.  Refrain from False Speech
5.  Refrain from the Use of Intoxicants

Once I am at peace, I can share with others about finding peace for
themselves, which is the secondary reason I practice.

I have no interest in practicing Buddhism for extinguishing
reincarnation.  These "fear based" reasons for being a Buddhist are
not authentic or natural - the persons actions are based on fear or
negative consequences otherwise they would not do them. My actions are
based on inner peace and if I stray - there goes my peace - it is my
choice.

Remember what I wrote about above with the myth of Gyges?

Take away the fear of pain of karma or hell and you have a different
person?

A truly virtuous life remains the same irrespective of such fears and
is not based on them.

I enjoy life and realize that due to natural law, suffering comes
about as part of the process and I accept it as a fair trade off for
the privilege of living.

Buddhism helps makes this trade off of life and pain more in my favor
by lending me support to live a life at peace. I do not practice
Buddhism to earn merit for the next life - I practice Buddhism for my
own peace generation in THIS LIFE.

You see, once a religion requires faith, this is where I leave off
with it's teaching.

I only use the tools that can be applied in this life that can be
tested to yield peace.

Otherwise, if I succumb to fantasy notions I start heading towards the
road of delusion.

So whether it is heaven, hell, reincarnation or chanting 'Namo
Amitabha Buddha' for the Buddha to carry me off to the pure
land...none of this can be proven as fact and is just based on ego
based man and their fantasies.

Still, I am not shy about benefiting from any religious path that
offers tools for me to live at peace.

I take from ALL spiritual paths without prejudice, my only requirement
is that the religious or spiritual tool be one that offers peace. Any
tool always has to pass the peace test, this way it speaks of a
'higher authority' than just man made dogma - it speaks of universal
truth.

See:

http://jesusneverexisted.org/jne/forum/index.php?topic=470.0

But, this all has to be done in balance.

For there are many true things that are good - but done in excess they
become bad.

For, even though air and water give us life, they will also give us
death when in excess.

So always seek balance.

How flexible can you be when it comes to finding tools for living at
peace within the worlds spiritual paths?

Even though I am not a Muslim, I borrowed from the Muslim's prayer
schedule to use myself. The Muslims have a practice of praying five
times a day to Allah. For those that do not know, Allah is the same
God of the Jews and of the Old Testament that the Christians worship.

The Muslims pray at sun up, when the sun is at its zenith at noon,
when the sun is part way down in the afternoon, when the sun sets and
when they go to bed. Even though I am not a Muslim, I borrowed from
the Muslim's prayer schedule to use as a reminder to be mindful of
"gratitude" in my life.

If you do not want to develop a practice of gratitude, then what about
using it as a reminder 5 times a day to relax your breath, practice
mindfulness and bring your thoughts back to the present moment? When
you have come to a point of gratitude for being able to open your eyes
in the morning and being able to take a breath of air everything else
is just gravy so to speak. Gratitude plays an important part with
finding inner peace, just as being mindful of the present moment and
being aware of anything that causes this mindfulness to wander.

If I could define the basis of my spiritual practice it would be that
of peace and practicality. Inner peace is the foundation of it all,
for we cannot have world peace without first being at peace within. I
used to be a Catholic for many years of my life as well as a
freethinking Buddhist before becoming an agnostic freethinker.

See::

http://jesusneverexisted.org/jne/forum/index.php?topic=318.0

A few years ago a lady moderator on a Christian forum banned me for
claiming that God is peace, telling me "you don't know who God is."

Funny thing about the Christians. I was a Christian as well as a
freethinking Buddhist in my earlier life and 100% of the Christian
forums have banned me, and 95% of the Buddhist forums have also banned
me.

This says something about the Christians and Buddhists and whether
they practice what they preach? The Christians chanting the Golden
rule of Reciprocity and Charity and Humility? and the Buddhists
preaching Compassion, Do No Harm and Egoless Non-Self?

Why am I banned so much?

Is it for getting in fights or flame wars?

No...I get banned for writing about truth.

When someone disagrees with you, apply the law of opposites to get at
the truth.

This removes the personalities and focusses on the principles and
helps you see the entire picture.

If God is not peace, then God must be the opposite of peace...turmoil
and unrest.

I prefer to believe God is peace and God is the authority on the
subject of peace.

The difference between an authority and an authoritarian is this. An
authority speaks from a place of truth and such speaks as an
authority. Whereas an authoritarian rules by fear and not by truth.
For the truth stands on it own and the authoritarian stands on their
ego.

See:

http://jesusneverexisted.org/jne/forum/index.php?topic=343.0

The Buddhists have a set of rules they use to determine what are
definitive truths and what are not. This can also be applied to such
questions.

1) Do not rely on just the person but rely on the doctrine.

2) With respect to the doctrine, do not rely on just the words, but
rely on the meaning.

3) With respect to the meaning, do not rely on just meaning requiring
interpretation, but rely on meaning that is definitive.

4) With respect to definitive meaning, do not rely on just dualistic
understanding but rely on the wisdom of the direct perception of the
truth.

Bringing this worship business back to the topic of religion, do we
worship a higher power out of fear for if we do not worship this
higher power we will be killed?

Sounds like the aliens in an old "Superman" movies that came to earth
to tell us to bow down to them or else?

If there was a God or a higher power does this entity need us to 'bow
down' to a 'big ego' or does God need us to 'act right' to our
companions as well as to act right to ourselves?

Bowing down produces no peace, whether in the person that demands it
due to an over bloated ego, nor does it foster peace within the person
forced to worship against their will. But this is how man made
religions work - they are run by fear, greed and ego.

I prefer to be truth and peace based. Many think God is like 'Santa
Claus' and must come through with their demands, just as we did as
greedy children making up a long, impossible list for Santa to fill.
This smacks of the ego based practitioner.

See:

http://jesusneverexisted.org/jne/forum/index.php?topic=133.0

The ego based person prays thinking they know better than God does.

The truly spiritual based person prays for God's will and not their
own, for if they truly knew better than God...the practitioner would
be the God.

Nothing wrong with asking if one is a believer, but always end such
requests humbly with accepting Gods or a higher powers will with
gratitude.

Can you imagine if everyone's prayers were answered according to our
self centered and conflicting demands? The world would be in real
turmoil then.

No, I prefer to make the God of Peace and the God of Nature two Gods I
serve and as such my actions can be evaluated in simple terms of
bringing me in harmony with these two Gods or not.

See:

http://jesusneverexisted.org/jne/forum/index.php?topic=342.0

Many times we violate the three branches of laws that govern us and
constantly ask God or a higher power to give us 'hall passes' to avoid
the consequences of our actions. Such prayer is again ego based,
thinking we should have preference over the rest of the world for
wishing to be exempt from our actions

We are all governed by these three areas of laws.

1 - Natural Law

2 - Divine or spiritual law (if you believe in spiritual matters)

3 - Manmade laws

I find that sometime spiritual practitioners neglect the natural laws
that govern our bodies and suffer in this area from lack of living a
balanced life.

Some of us forget we are spiritual beings residing in physical bodies
living in physical world and governed my both spiritual and physical
or natural laws in addition to man made laws.

We need some effort with spiritual work and some effort in physical
work for a good balance. Some of us think we can defy man made laws as
well as divine or spiritual laws.

But no matter how defiant the person is...we all answer to natural
law. We all bow to nature in the end.

Anyway, you are free to think or not think of God or higher power as
you see fit. I am only a 'minor authority' on peace and do not wish to
be an authoritarian, so I allow freedom for all to think as they wish
and only ask the same courtesy be extended to me - reciprocity.

Psychologist William James once said, "A great many people believe
they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices."

This applies to atheists as well as the religious or the pious. To
avoid prejudice, we have to be careful of 'black or white' absolutes
if you claim to truth based and not ego based in your beliefs. I work
to keep an open mind for all religions as well as those persons that
believe nothing.

When I discussed Christian principles one time an Atheist piped up to
say "the Christians have no principles," and "Jesus was a fabled
creation of the Christians."

When we sperate the personalities from the principles it makes looking
at things much easier. When I am referring to Christian principles I
speak of such things as charity, works of mercy and the golden rule,
where the emphasis is on principles and not on the personalities of
the church.

For even if Jesus was just created as a fable, these Christian
principles are universal truths in their own right if one desires to
live a life at peace and promote the inner peace of others in this
world. Is it any different from the Taoists following the legend of
Lao Tzu? Always look at what is said and not at who says what this
divorces the personalties and prejudice from your search for truth.

"The Corporal Works of Mercy"

To feed the hungry
To give drink to the thirsty
To clothe the naked
To harbour the harbourless
To visit the sick
To ransom the captive
To bury the dead

"The Spiritual Works of Mercy"

To instruct the ignorant
To counsel the doubtful
To admonish sinners
To bear wrongs patiently
To forgive offenses willingly
To comfort the afflicted
To pray for the living and the dead

You see, by applying the rule of reciprocity or rule of opposites we
can see if we were in these positions of the needy mentioned above, we
would like such charity bestowed on us for the most part. What about
our children, parents and loved ones? Wouldn't we wish the same for
them? We have no loved ones? What about our neighbors?

The Christian ethic says to treat one another as we would wish to be
treated. As we give ~ so we receive. Even if an atheist, as we give
peace - we receive inner peace as many of the tools I mentioned above
do not require belief in God, they only requirement is a desire to be
at peace and to bring peace to others. This is the Christian doctrine
in a nutshell, when we put principles before personalities.

As you instill seeds of peace within others you plant the same seeds
and water these seeds within you as well. As James Allen wrote in "As
a man Thinketh" ~ To think well of all, to be cheerful with all, to
patiently learn to find the good in all - such unselfish thoughts are
the very portals of heaven; and to dwell day by day in thoughts of
peace toward every creature will bring abounding peace to their
possessor."

This is universal truth that transcends man made religions.

Remember, we do not have to do it perfectly. Just look for direction
and forget perfection - for perfection or range is of the ego and form
is of the soul.

There are many tools for peace within the worlds spiritual paths, no
one said these paths are perfect, in fact, it was once said that
walking the spiritual path is akin to walking on a razors edge. But if
we bother to be honest, non prejudicial and to look, we can find tools
that can help us be at peace whether atheist, agnostic or believer.

In the Gnostic gospel of Thomas, it was reported:

"The disciples asked Jesus, when will the kingdom come? Jesus replied,
'The kingdom will not come by watching for it.  It will not be said -
look here or look there. Rather, the kingdom of heaven is spread out
upon the earth and men do not see it."

What does this quote mean for the atheist as well as the religious
minded person?

For the atheist or as a nonbeliever of an afterlife:

THIS LIFE IS IT - This life is either heaven or hell as you make it.
Just grabbing all the gusto you can will not give you peace.

It requires much more than that - for greed is never satisfied by
attainment, it is only satisfied by contentment. We are reminded to be
mindful of each moment given to us and to be grateful for this life.
Being of service to others and charitable actions help lead us to
contentment and peace.

There are 3 components for a happy life: Contentment, love or
compassion and gratitude. When we realize that happiness and
contentment are there for the taking and that they are independent
from our circumstances it sometimes can sink in that there is nothing
stopping us from being content and happy this very instant.

It is your choice alone as to whether you make this life one of peace
for yourself and others or not, but in either case you will reap what
you sow. "Just as a life of virtue yields its own reward, a life of
vice yields its own punishment" - Plutarch

For the religious minded person and believer in an afterlife:

Jesus' saying will foreshadow things to come. For if we make this
earthly life hell for ourselves and others, we have a slim chance of
doing better in an afterlife. Just paying lip service to religious
principles and doing the opposite will not do it.

Again mindfulness of our actions is most important. An old Buddhist
saying sheds some light on our journey "when one eye is kept on the
destination, it only leaves one eye left for the journey." If we keep
fixated on the after life, and can't find peace in the present life,
we can lose sight of the fact that our actions can turn the present
moment in a living hell for us as well as others.

Actions speak louder than words and this especially applies to such
religious beliefs. By applying the rule of reciprocity and Christian
ethics and charity we have better chance at entering any afterlife and
in the interim help make this life a peaceful one for all that dwell
on earth.


So, whether you are on either end of this spectrum of beliefs, the
choices are the same as to the direction we take when it comes to
inner peace.

The seeds of enlightenment are all around us - we only have to seek
the truth and come to peace within to realize this.

A quote on finding peace from Thich Nhat Hanh

"There is no way to peace, peace is the way.

This means that we can realize peace right here in the present moment
with our look, our smile, our words and our actions.

Peace work in not a means, each step we take should be peace.

Every step we take should be joy.

Every step we take should be happiness.

Are you massaging Mother Earth every time your foot touches her?

Are you planting seeds of joy and peace?

Enlightenment, peace and joy will not be granted by someone else.

The well is within us and if we dig deeply in the present moment the
water will spring forth.

If we are determined, we can do it.

We don't need the future.

We can smile, breath fully and relax Everything we want is here in the
present moment.

Peace is every step.

Shall we continue our journey?"





Take care,


V (Male)

Agnostic Freethinker
Practical Philosopher
AA#2