One of the questions I have had when it comes to enlightenment, and the Buddhist philosophy, is in regards to the idea that it is wrong to kill another living being, an idea which strikes me as so similar to the Christian commandment: “Thou Shalt Not Kill.” The problem that I have with dogmas, and [...]
Posts Tagged ‘religion’
Jesus and Letting Go
Posted in Life, tagged freedom, happiness, philosophy, religion on June 20, 2011 | Comments Off
The thought just occurred to me that this is what the Jesus story is ultimately about: letting go. It is about the “death” of what you are in order to be who you are. It is about a dying of the old, of your old illusory life, in order to be “resurrected” as who you [...]
The Path from Child to Adult
Posted in Life, tagged happiness, human condition, religion on May 20, 2011 | Comments Off
Going along with Spinoza’s take on the Adam (and Eve) story, it seems that the point of the story may be that humans can either do things as a child (out of fear of evil, or desire for reward) or as an adult (out of love of “God,” or reality, or what is) and that [...]
The Struggle Between Reality and Humanness
Posted in Life, tagged conditioning, happiness, reality, religion on February 17, 2011 | Comments Off
The other night, I was watching The Last Temptation of Christ, and (probably because of the inherent religious overtones) I was having some trouble understanding the struggle between what some people call “the spirit and the flesh.” The yearning to be divine, while at the same time being all-too-human. And I finally understood it, but [...]
The Unloaded Gun
Posted in Life, tagged attitude, belief, control, freedom, philosophy, reality, religion on February 8, 2011 | Comments Off
(See “Hypocrisy in Morality” for the first part of this discussion.) Most people have it backwards—morality does not determine motivations and values, values and motivations determine morality. This is why organized religion has it wrong, because it functions on the former—false—principle. And it is why societies which attempt to function based on this backward logic [...]
