Go to The Reverend Kooka Speaks About Religious Bulls#!t
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- Go to THE ONE TRUE WAY FOR MANKIND TO FIND SPIRITUAL ENLIGHTENMENT
Reaching enlightenment
happens one person at a time. It is the desire to understand that is the path. But not all are ready to acheive it and they walk thier own path in the way they are programmed. It takes changing the program, inserting a string of thought that is foreign and discovering where it leads. It takes courage to do this and trust that knowledge is the key to understanding--but as the Tao puts it, "Knowledge is not knowledge, Wisdom is not wisdom."
In your post you form a circular arguement that many religions are based on:
There has yet to be anyone who has been truly enlightened. Many have been much closer to it than I will ever be, but none have yet to get there. How do I know this? Because the world as we know will be not be the same once just one person becomes truly enlightened. Part of the enlightenment would have to be to spread the word of it around and once that truth is just pointed out there can be no denying it and it will change the way all people view life. . .
What we all need to see is that no matter what the best thing we can do is stay true to ourselves and our spiritual needs. You and only you can figure out the path to enlightenment that is best for you. Whatever religion or belief or faith or whatever name you wish to place on it, that allows you to grow spiritually is correct for you and is as valid as any other. It is the path that you know is right for you and therefore is the one you must take. You can not force others to take you path or to see the world as you do. That would take them away from enlightenment, and at the same time take you away from it as well. For denying a person their path in life is not taking yourself to a better level of understanding.
The enlightened one will see, as you did, that you cannot express the enlightenment for others, giving it away to them without them having the experience that creates the enlightenment. Once this is done, it becomes a religion, a belief, a faith and an arguement, for those who haven't experienced it, against the enlightened one and the discovering of understanding. It isn't a selfish thing to keep this to yourself and live your own life in harmony as best you can. Having acheived enlightenment means there is hope that others will also acheive it, and that is the peace of the enlightened one.
Hence, the Philosopher's joke: I've got the answer, but I'm not going to tell you."
Peace,
Freerain
posted by
freerain
on October 10, 2004 at 10:15 AM
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beachbelle
Just read through the posts from this last week.
I will have to admit that my post from yesterday was not in the best of spirits. It was out frustration. But the rest of the week I feel I have followed the ideas I expressed in this post.
posted by
kooka_lives
on October 6, 2004 at 5:35 PM
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beachbelle
I have no problem with disagreeing. I was just saying that this last week I really do not feel I have gone against the ideas expressed in this post, except for the one post that was taking Ody's words and showing that they can be said in reverse and still have just as much meaning.
I am wondering as to what posts you are talking about. I would like to understand better where you saw me doing this during the last week. The Ody post does not count though. I openly admit it was not a post that promoted such values, which I think says a lot about the person who wrote it. I know in the past I have writen some posts that I will openly admit did not follow those vlaues, but for the last week I really feel I have been. I have tired to just state my views with out discrediting other's beliefs.
And I do thank you for your compliment. As I said, I had decided to make changes here due to how tiring I was finding it to be running in cirlces with those who I was trying to debate with. I really believe I have been doing that all week so far, with the one excpetiong of the rewording of Ody's post.
posted by
kooka_lives
on October 6, 2004 at 5:29 PM
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Kooka, I knew you would disagree . I base my comments on what I have read
I sense you believe that I am being antagonistic but I am not. You set out your views and I reply with constructive criticism in the interests of the discussion you claim to seek (and even gave you a compliment in my previous comment). If we all agreed and patted each other on the head all the time we would not move forward. I always learned more from receiving brickbats than bouquets.
posted by
beachbelle
on October 6, 2004 at 4:40 PM
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I could do a blog like that, I suppose, although I've already written plenty along those lines on my website, which can be accessed via any of my blogs. I did write a beginner's course in reading them once, but I had a disaster with my pc and had to reformat my hard drive in an emergency and ended up losing the whole thing apart from one lesson, which was all I'd got around to putting on disk. There are quite a few articles aimed at beginner's on the site, though.
posted by
Witty_Woman
on October 6, 2004 at 4:30 PM
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Witty
I have no doubt about that. I also know a few people who would be more than willing ot educate me on it as well.
You know you might start a blog or at least do a post or two about how you view tarot cards and the ideas behind them. It should make for an interesting post. Just remember I won't be able to get on line till Sunday at the earliest after tonight.
posted by
kooka_lives
on October 6, 2004 at 4:25 PM
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posted by
justAcarpenter
on October 6, 2004 at 1:36 PM
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Well, there are quite a few people on here who would be willing to answer any questions you have, I'm sure. You might even find them interesting, you never know!
posted by
Witty_Woman
on October 6, 2004 at 1:26 PM
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Witty
And that is part of what I need to accept and start to understand about it. I do not need to beleive that it works, but I need to accept that for you and many others it works. Then I can start to better understand how it is suppose to work and what it is that draws you to it. In the end I still do not need to believe in it, but I need to accept that you do and that it is a valid set of beliefs. Accepting the idea of the tarot cards is just he begining of the understanding, that would take me to the area of how you believe they work.
I will admit that right now taort cards are something I have not been willing to accept for whatever reasons.
posted by
kooka_lives
on October 6, 2004 at 1:10 PM
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beachbelle
Where in my posts from the last week have I done that. You might be able to find some older ones that come close to that, but I have never striaght out said people need to believe as I do or they are wrong. The basic theme I had decided to change to, which I started to do about a week or so ago, was to be open minded and state my beleifs in as uninsulting a way as possible. I had grown tired of the debating that was nothing more than running in circles.I think most here have and I did feel I was being a little insulting at times and I saw there was nothing to gain in such negitive actions. It was time to make sure I was showing as much respect as possible for other's and their beleifs. I was breaking away from all that then I felt I had to do the post for Ody to try and show him how his own words can work both ways. If that post came out as insulting or lacking respect, it was becasue that is how Ody wrote it and that is what I had hoped to get Ody to see. That was not trying to say his beliefs are wrong, but to make a point that I was hoping would get him to respect other's beliefs. All other posts from the last week have expressed my views, but I did all I could to make sure I was not saying other views were wrong. I do all I can to aviod saying that people need to believe as I do. I just express my views in order to get people to think about them and possibly look at the world a little different.
posted by
kooka_lives
on October 6, 2004 at 1:03 PM
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Your last paragraph is particularly strong. I hope we all can find some enlightenment by reading each other's blogs. Your essays contribute a great deal to those of us who use blogit as a philosophical sounding board.
posted by
aardvark
on October 6, 2004 at 12:27 PM
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I agree with your blog Kooka. I am
far from enlightened. It's a long journey it seems, but then I see how abrupt it stops for others and I wonder if in those last few moments if they felt peace. It would be nice to think so anyway. Are all the tools for enlightenment there for a short life, or an angry life, or a life distorted by medication or drugs? It doesn't seem fair to start a journey lame and blind. Thanks for reading my tarot card post, it really is just for fun- and I hope that Bush does not win!
posted by
Flumpystalls3000
on October 6, 2004 at 12:09 PM
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Just noticed your post on the tarot card blog (my reading suggested the other guy would win, Kerry, so one of us has to be right!). Anyway, it isn't really tarot cards you have to accept, it's the possibility that there are ways of accessing the subconscious mind that we are not necessarily aware of, because really that is all they are. They're a way of bringing your thoughts out into the open so you can analyse them and work out which is the best solution to your problem, or the best way to go forward in a situation. They are not really meant to be used for fortune-telling, even less for humorous questions about socks (as I did in my blog)! They are different to other divination tools, but it's hard to explain that to someone who doesn't understand them and has no experience of them. Many people use them when they don't understand how they work and that has given them a bad name in some circles. In the right hands, they can be very revealing and very helpful. And as long as someone is helped, it doesn't really matter how they receive that help.
posted by
Witty_Woman
on October 6, 2004 at 12:05 PM
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"You can not force others to take you path or to see the world as you do."
"You can not force others to take you path or to see the world as you do. That would take them away from enlightenment, and at the same time take you away from it as well."
In your earlier posts this week, although I expect you will deny it, you appeared to be trying to impose your view on others.
This post changes tack and is so much better for it.
posted by
beachbelle
on October 6, 2004 at 11:53 AM
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Very wise words here, although they will probably fall on deaf ears (or ears that only hear what they want to hear). Chances are nobody has hit on the real answers yet and chances are nobody ever will. And even if they did, would anybody believe them?
posted by
Witty_Woman
on October 6, 2004 at 11:48 AM
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will the world ever be enlightened?
even if one -- or maybe even several -- are?
hah!
the great thinkers of the great philosopies and religions -- look at them.
then look at the world.
light gets absorbed into the darkness the farther from the source it gets.
posted by
Xeno-x
on October 6, 2004 at 11:36 AM
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sit under the baobob tree
starve
and let your hair grow long.
(one out of three ain't bad)
and let monkeys run all over your body.
but that won't guarantee that you will be enlightened.
keep thinking the way you are thinking
and that will take you a long way.
posted by
Xeno-x
on October 6, 2004 at 11:34 AM
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