I Want To Know The "Truth"

by Undecided 19 Replies latest jw friends

  • tetrapod.sapien
    tetrapod.sapien

    hi ken, :)

    i believe that it is fairly obvious that most religions and spiritual practices come from the same ultimate place. what i mean, is that people like gautama the "buddha", and jesus the "christ", and paul the "missonary", and walt whitman the "poet" etc etc have all experienced the same enlightenment, but their followers have grossly misinterpreted the path.

    the buddha believed what the hindus believe, and that's that there are billions of paths to the same place: illumination, or Bhramic Splendor. this is another way of saying that the path to enlightenment is not found by following another holyman, but in awakening to one's own god-nature, and following that intensly personal and solitary path to the light of Being. the compulsive thought-free mind, now.

    "truth" is a label, and conceptual abstraction in your mind, for something that either exists outside of it, or inside of it (same with "proof"). either way, truth will only really be found by resting in the sublime moment, free of the ego-self and the chattering mind. truth is not a mind thing. the mind just understands that it exists, is all. a teacher can help you get to this place, and understand that it exists deep in you, perhaps beyond "mind", but there must come a time when the teacher should be left behind, as the buddha and the christ would surely agree, imho. afterall, they were apostates to their own traditions anyways, hinduism and judaism respectively.

    so, in other words, proof and truth, in the spiritual sense, are not going to come from following any other spiritual tradition. it's only going to come from inside You. and when that happens, those two labels won't mean much anymore.

    peace,

    tetra

  • Undecided
    Undecided

    Tetra, I think I understand what you mean. Sometimes when I'm outside and see the beauty of nature I have a feeling of closeness with life, but when I see the way nature really works I lose that feeling. Some examples, the way animals and humans kill to survive, the way nature kills with disease, natural disasters. They say that half the people who ever lived have been killed by mosquitoes and the diseases they transmit. Life is beautiful and tragic. Right now my grandson has cancer(at least the doc thinks it's cancer) but the biopsy hasn't come back yet. Life doesn't look so beautiful to him right now.

    I've had a really good life and appreciate the ride but soon it will end by some way I don't want to know right now. I hope it's soon by the WT definition though.

    Ken P.

  • garybuss
    garybuss

    Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. - Philip K. Dick


  • gumby
    gumby
    How do you make yourself believe any of this stuff without some real proof?

    I would venture to say that very few, if any, believe 100% of what they claim they believe.....especially witnesses.

    It takes faith to believe in something your not 100% sure of and faith is something that isn't actually beheld by an individual. If I was starving on a deserted island and had exausted my search for food and someone told me to have faith that food would eventually be provided to me, then faith would be my only option.... wouldn't it? One option that isn't fullproof isn't really a good option.....is it now?

    Ken, everytime you post stuff like this it just reminds me that no matter how old we get in life......we'll still have unanswered questions in life....and just maybe that's the way any creator we might have wants it. When we have all the answers, we search for another something that doesn't so far have any answers.

    *reminds self to never shoot up heroin before posting on one of Kens threads ever again*

    Gumgoofy

  • tetrapod.sapien
    tetrapod.sapien

    hi ken!

    yes, i totally agree, life being tragic and beautiful, all at once. but as a human, an animal attempting to "shed the meat", so to speak, i feel it is so very important to come to an acceptance of the way the world is. in a selfless and compassionate sort of way.

    i can only imagine what it must be like to be in your shoes ken, at this point in time. if it's not too forward, i might just also add that the ending of our consciousness in death is just an ending of self consciousness. but everything that makes you ken, all the molecules and atoms that make everything, including your mind and consciousness, have always existed, and will always exist. and in this way, you are immortal! and perhaps in millions of years we will meet, in some partial way that we cannot explain or accept now.

    until then my friend!

    tetra

  • gumby
    gumby
    but everything that makes you ken, all the molecules and atoms that make everything, including your mind and consciousness, have always existed, and will always exist. and in this way, you are immortal!

    ......don't listen to him Ken.....Tetra forgot to mention that your makeup might end up in a pile of dog poop too......and who wants to live immortal in a fossilized dog turd fer christ sake?

    *throws a piece of dog poop at tetra and runs like hell*

    Gumsmartass

  • Undecided
    Undecided

    Oh well, shit happens all the time, I just hope I don't get flushed down the toilet and end up with a bunch of old turds in a cesspool somewhere.

    Ken P.

  • Kaput
    Kaput
    I just hope I don't get flushed down the toilet and end up with a bunch of old turds in a cesspool somewhere.

    Like in Brooklyn.

  • bebu
    bebu
    without some real proof?

    ....But, what would that entail? What you are asking for is pretty tricky. Can you think of something that could not be discredited by anyone, or ever get shadows of doubt cast upon it? I can't. One man's proof will not convince all others. What convinces others does not necessarily convince me, and vice versa. I think that perhaps just the bare attitude of wanting truth (even if turns out to be something no one believes) is spiritually helpful in the whole matter.

    That quote from garybuss is excellent.

    bebu

  • juni
    juni

    Ken said:

    Oh well, shit happens all the time, I just hope I don't get flushed down the toilet and end up with a bunch of old turds in a cesspool somewhere

    Ken don't feel like you are alone w/these thoughts. Man is always searching for answers........

    By your statement above, I know you are going to be just fine. You still have a sense of humor despite all that you are going through.

    Want you to know that I'm thinking of you and your family and grandson.

    Hugs,

    Juni

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