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Original Sin
Original Sin
By
Cognitive Dissonance
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They are everywhere and mostly unrecognized, paths we have taken and routes we have abandoned. Some are emotional and physical, some moral, some mental. Most are of little consequence to us, or to the world at large, and pass unnoticed from our perceived reality, almost as if they were not there to begin with.
But every now and then there is a fork in the road that is of such earth shaking magnitude that the very world is changed. Yet few of us recognize the event for what it really is…..or was. In the vast history book of time, even the magnitude 8 or 9 earthquakes often warrant little more than a sentence or two, if any mention is made at all. Why is that?
The ultimate expression of our ego is when we declare we are aware, that we see clearly, our vision 20-20 and without fault or flaw. While the reader may scoff at such a silly notion, that we would actually claim to see clearly for we all understand we are human and thus prone to (the occasional) error, our ego does not believe this to be silly at all. Our ego wants us to believe we are always correct, with no error or blunder, because believing so tends to cut down on uncomfortable Cognitive Dissonance.
Since we spend the vast majority of our conscious time engulfed within, and influenced by, our ego (and if we deny this it is most likely our ego talking) it would be foolish to think we perceive anything as it truly is. We willingly don rose colored glasses in an effort to ignore our ugly truths, both small and large, in favor of our more carefully sanitized reality. Then again, the further we travel from the authentic life, the more difficult it becomes to recognize that which we no longer truly understand……the truth……our truth.
I would like to engage in a thought experiment, though it will be presented as fiction, make believe if you will. The purpose is to allow the reader to try on a new suit of clothes without fear or consequence, to crank up the imagination and apply liberal doses of empathy. While we all understand the concept of walking a mile in another person’s shoes, the real goal of this little ditty is to place you not in my shoes, but squarely in yours. In order to do this I shall create a small poetic fiction for you to have fun with……and just maybe to explore.
I do this to disarm and seduce, to engage and engross. If I were to point to ‘you’ (or God forbid myself) while venturing into difficult areas, the egoic defenses roll up and the rational mind shuts down, auto pilot safely on. No one likes to be pointed to, let alone to be piously lectured.
But if I were to expose a fictional person as human and vulnerable, then it is safe for the reader to venture in, and try on, the make believe skin for shape, size and clarity. After all, you can’t be hurt by what is not real and most certainly not about you. And isn’t that the ultimate purpose of a story, to provide an all expense paid trip down the rabbit hole with the assurance of a return ticket back home?
At some point or another we have all experienced a situation where we are having a very difficult time absorbing a concept, fact or thought process when suddenly everything comes together, like a light bulb just turned on. For me this usually occurs when information is presented in a different manner or by a different person or process.
Since this is written from ‘David’s’ point of view, he will be narrating his rocky tale for you. This is also my first foray into some very clunky rhyme in an effort to change up the delivery so that you might swing at the pitch. Please indulge me as the ultimate purpose is to view our current situation from a very personal point of view, that of David. Let us begin.
David’s Story
My thirty five year marriage to Mary was always off track, but it really began to fall apart the day after the attack. It’s best not to begin this at the point we went off track, but rather with the benefit of hindsight and looking way back. We met three weeks into my junior year, and for me it was love at first sight. But Mary spurned my initial approaches, and it was months before we had our first night.
I was persistent, though some would say stubborn and still others might say dumb. I sent flowers, I changed classes, I was forever beating my own drum. She was intelligent and beautiful, and I feared she was more than I could manage. But Mary came ‘round and I thought myself lucky to have turned her to my advantage.
Regardless of her motives, we joined to build a life, though it was always on her terms and rarely did I win a fight. While I wished to believe ours was a marriage of equals, as in so many unions in life it was a joining of un-equals. She demanded her space and since I feared her loss, I conceded her what she took, shut my eyes and stifled my remorse.
But in return she bore my children, kept my house, helped nurture my career. There were burning questions I dared not express, “do not go there” she said quite clear. We worked through the rough spots and she appeared at times resigned. I convinced myself I was as well and lived my life as I defined.
It was easier when I was younger, full of blind drive and great hunger. My future in corporate finance assured us a life time full larder, though Mary was never satisfied and relentlessly drove me ever harder. But my offsite business meetings and her weekly socializations kept Mary distracted and helped quiet her unhappy vocalizations.
Still her strange absences, missed phone calls and many unanswered questions, pointed to trouble at home and I worried about her indiscretions. But when I would probe, Mary would lash out and accuse; something I could not fathom which left me all the more confused.
With my earning power climbing along with social status and corporate rank, we muddled through the rough times as I learned to remain mentally blank. But with our two children now finally off to state college, Mary’s absences and transgressions left me constantly on edge. While I feared asking too much for I might not want the knowledge, not knowing what was happening often drove me to allege.
It was while driving to a client late one morning that I received the call; the police informed me that Mary had taken a brutal fall. I drove straight to the hospital where Mary had been taken, she had been brutally beaten, why were the police so mistaken?
So many questions, so few being attended, how could this be, my world was upended. I was told it was a home invasion of the most destructive kind; they took some money and jewels and anything else they could find. I protested confusion, my home was secure, but the police were satisfied when Mary was demure.
I demanded they find them, what the many discrepancies meant, but with their paperwork complete, soon their interest was spent. So after two weeks of rest and rehabilitation, I gathered up Mary and off we went on vacation. She was frightened of our home unless I greatly expanded; it seemed the more security I offered the more she demanded.
While our extended family gathered to wish us all well, they did not want to look closely and most certainly not dwell. That approach seemed to quiet Mary, but it just furthered my depression. Something was very wrong here, but no one seemed in the mood for confession. To my family I was now the injured party, Mary was looking better in fact quite hearty.
With my incessant inquiry and pestering question, I was considered ill and in need of professional attention. My brother took me aside and told me to stop my protestations, it was Mary who was the victim here “how dare I have expectations?” I was alone in a house full of family and friend, everyone satisfied to look past Mary’s bruises and my troubling bend.
The following years were a slow downward spiral into hell, heartsick, my calm and resolve descending as well. First she wanted more security, then a stronger window and door, once one thing was installed, it was ripped out for some more. The distraction this caused did not bode well at work, my job in jeopardy I feared demotion to file clerk.
I was being bled to death, both my sanity and my wealth; I could deal with most assaults, but not my failing health. For all her numerous faults, this was not the Mary I wed, nothing I did would please her, her demands were never fed. After seven long ugly years of this, it was decided I would say goodbye, she had found someone else, someone she had on the sly.
Looking back over the years it is now abundantly clear, that I willingly participated in the deception I did fear. Even now with the advantage of time and distance, I’m still working through the details of the self destruction I gave my assistance. Recently while clearing out some old boxes from deep storage, I found some love letters to Mary next to an old first mortgage.
While I had always suspected that Mary had kept a lover, what I discovered in that box was that her lover was my brother. To make matters worse he was her lover during the attack, and it seems from the letters that it was he who beat her black. Mary then conspired with my brother to cover his track, by staging the theft and beating as a false flag attack. What does one do, where does one turn, when one is betrayed and then left to burn?
End of David’s Story
Many of us claim to have known to some degree or another about the coming danger of those who presently rape, rob and pillage our homes, our economy and nation, our sense of self worth and community, our national pride and honor. Then again how much of that is actually our ego talking, protecting ourselves from the trauma of the shock and awe scorched Earth operation presently under way.
Still there is no getting around the fact that deep down inside, during the quiet of the night when we wake with a start and the mind begins to race, that we are hurt to the core, betrayed by all that we wanted to believe in, did believe in for most of our life, taught as children about what was just and right. It sounded so good; it sounded so right, sea to shining sea of free souls gently governed by a benevolent authority derived of the people, by the people, for the people.
Who among us at some point or another did not avert our gaze, bow our head and quicken our step before crossing the street in order to avoid what we suspected might be going on down that dark alley just off to the left. A mugging maybe, none of your damn business; hurry along there serf and mind your P’s & Q’s. You owe, you owe, so off to work obedient consumer you go. Forget what you saw, forget what’s up ahead, just dream of that overdue bill dancing around in your head.
While I may claim this is not what I signed up for and thus I am not responsible for the present day mess, there is no denying that I left to others the moral and personal responsibility I abdicated to monitor and police the system while I pursued my own dumbed down distractions, self interest or mind numbing pleasure.
Or did I simply forget that section of the social compact I now claim to have been defrauded of, the part where I promised to apply my attention and diligence and in return receive my reward? But isn’t that what voting is for on that hallowed second Tuesday in November? Yes sir, I do my part every other year, isn’t that enough?
This is so much more than just about who has the power and who has not, who is not in jail, who is too big to fail and who disappeared into the night like a lost letter in the mail. This is about being violated in a manner most of us have never experienced before. We have been violently assaulted, robbed and beaten before being cast aside and abandoned on the side of the road. Worse, we have been threatened with more if we do not stay silent, and then spied upon in the most personal and supposedly protected manner.
This is about loss and grief, about pain and punishment, about personal redemption and the road to perdition, about our complicity, complacency and willing participation with our tormentors before, during and after the fact. This is about personal shame and public humiliation, about the betrayal of ourselves by someone who we (desperately) wanted to believe was trustworthy when they were most assuredly not.
This is about self betrayal, both individually and collectively. We were either blinded by our own lust and greed, or duped and dummied by ideological drugs. Just because we were lied to does not mean we should have suspended disbelief like hapless children told to mind our business and eat our peas. David knew something was wrong, deeply wrong, with his relationship, but he made the decision, conscious or otherwise, to ignore the warning signs and enjoy the ride for as long as it lasted. What right does he have to be indignant over his brother’s betrayal when first he betrayed himself?
But most of all this is about fear, at times stomach churning, spine tingling, hair raising fight or flight terror from the realization that if this truly does end up going in the direction it is becoming increasingly obvious it will, that we, meaning you and I and all those who we hold dear, could be in real mortal danger, if not directly from our tormentor, then from the effects and fallout of our tormentors thrashing and gnashing death throes.
Nearly all of us……well, all except our benevolent dictators, appear to be permanently caught in the first four stages of the Kubler-Ross black hole of loss and grief, endlessly circling around Acceptance in the center while rotating through Denial, Anger, Bargaining and Depression on the periphery. One would think we would eventually succumb to the gravity of Acceptance in order to move on and make significant personal changes, but as long as our velocity and centrifugal force is great enough to counteract the gravity well within we will not quickly pass through this insanity.
This finally gets me to the point of this dissertation. While it is comforting to believe that if only ‘they’ or ‘them’ would change their ways we could rid ourselves of this mess along with the sociopaths in charge, thus absolving me, myself and I from any blame or responsibility, the truth of the matter is that the present state of affairs is just the symptom and not the disease.
The illness can and will be found within, in our dysfunction within ourselves and with our interactions with each other. The health or discord of a society is a reflection of the health or dis-ease of the individuals that comprise that society. One must think of this in the same way one would blame the chain for breaking when it fact it was the weakest link that failed. Only in our case society’s chain consists of all weak links, some better or worse than others, but all ill at ease. The answers always lay within. Maybe we should take a long look some time.
05-18-2014
Cognitive Dissonance
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In our society, trust is a vice. As children, we trust in our parents. When we mature, we still want to trust. Trust is an addictive, satisfying, mind-numbing drug. We're taught to trust in God, in our wives, in our families, in government, in our courts, in our police, in our Constitution and in the heroes which will fight for us. But that trust is destructive to us. When we give that trust, it takes our power. That power corrupts them, while addicting and mind-numbing ourselves.
Temporary trust must be continually earned. Our brave new world as an adult is really just the same old jungle.
An excellent, and disturbing point, more disturbing than the article in my opinion.
When we come to the realization that we can't simply trust what we've always trusted, or want to trust, but must instead constantly consider even the people we care about to be trustworthy or not trustworthy based upon their actions and what they do towards us, it makes one's internal world become a little dimmer I think. But that is reality.
I want to be able to trust my best friend, my brother, my girlfriend, etc. But if I want to eliminate or greatly reduce possibilities of getting screwed by anyone in the world, I have to only trust them while they continue to prove their trustworthiness through actions. And that's scary. Because who wants to not trust people who are so close to you?
What do you mean you don't trust me? :)
I have written a few articles that have touched on this subject, but have never devoted any significant time to really examine it in public. What little I have penned indicates that it is a minefield and most certainly an extremely touchy subject.
I say all the time that action speaks so much louder than words. I can tell you anything you wish to hear, and at the same cost to me as it is to the Fed to 'print' money.........zero. My actions on the other hand are nearly priceless and are so much more indicative of my true state of mind.
Watch what we do, not what we say.
I disagree with the premise so won't follow you to your conclusion.
I find discord in thought to be unacceptable.
I was raised on reason and understand in order to believe; not vice versa.
My first impression was, what do you mean "we?"
"My first impression was, what do you mean "we?""
Read to the end and you might just find out. Then again you might not. That is the risk we all take when reading something we disagree with.
I did read the end and I disagree not because there is some risk involved.
I disagree with the conclusion because your premise is wrong.
Your conclusion is that society has its ills because all the individuals have their ills.
Your premise is that all individuals have their ills because they are born with Original Sin.
It is this premise that I disagree with because it is wrong.
Have you considered that society may have its ills because individuals take the premise of Original Sin seriously?
It's a mixture I think.
You are both right...and...
OC sure, there is something in your own cognitive dissonance that prevents you from being able to agree that all are complicit, in one way or another, in the tyranny we impose on ourselves.
For instance, it is election season- Do you find yourself surrounded by signs and tv ads? Do you think any one of those candidates has your best interest in mind? If you do, you are complicit in your own slavery.
Unless and until you learn to laugh and point at these political actors as the clowns they really are, you are the creator of you own prison.
What is my cognitive dissonace? This term intimates that I have an internal comprehension struggle but i don't. Are you applying this term to all persons and assuming that everyone has a constant discord in their reasoning capacity?
I do catch your drift if what you mean is does one unknowingly submit to external authority versus evaluating the impression and choosing to obey or not...
Never mind obeyance, OC. Just be. You will be amazed at how liberating that simple act can be.
I'm certainly down with that. Thanks.
It's simple, you be you and I'll be me, there is no conflict unless one of us decides to impose our will on the other of us, and human nature dictates that we will always fight. Fkn stupid, but it's us.
I'm pretty sure Cog has left catholicism behind for his own reasons, if religion is what you're driving at (and no I'm not catholic).
However, leaving that aside, if parents didn't train their children that taking another childs cookie is wrong (its theft) what type of "society" would there be when they grew up? Is the child sinning (theft) or not?
And "Heaven forbid" should the child reach puberty when he/she could kill another for what they want.
Original, maybe, yes? ;-)
"Your premise is that all individuals have their ills because they are born with Original Sin."
Please indicate in my piece exactly where I state that people are born with original sin. I missed that and I wrote the damn piece.
If anything my title (Original Sin) was click bait and no more. I was in fact referring to people lying to themselves (myself included) as the 'original sin' created fresh on a daily basis, but made sure not to explain that in order to see if someone would come to that conclusion. Clearly you did not.
FWIW, I'll post my realized conception of what is "Original Sin".
It's an allegory. But for what? I say it is the mammalian psychobiological predispositions that exist as the perceptual basis in the default physical human entity as the result of all precedent biological evolution. Irrespective the organized religion which may have popularized the term, the principle predates the popular. And, it most definitely IS in all of us (got ego?), and though we are not responsible for it being there, we are responsible for what we do with it. The default physical human entity is the current peak of the mammalian branch of biological evolution, and carries within it both the precedent, primal, inherited, survival self interest of animal life and the nonphysical possibilities of organized abstraction in its various forms.
Others talk of different "brains"; the body or reptilian, the solar plexus or emotional, and the cortex or thinking/abstracting. In the extended chronology of evolution, the thinking brain is recent compared to the others, and without intentioned development, based on an accurate understanding of its place, the thinking brain primarily gives voice to the perceptions of the other two, more intrinsic, more developed over time, much older, brains. With the evolution of the thinking brain, the human entity now has the capability to participate in the creative bridging of the physical with the nonphysical, and this participation can now be made out of intention rather than only out conditioned or habitual reflex (mechanism).
In my conception, "original sin" is generally the survival self interest predispositions that the human entity must objectify for and in their-self and rise above, i.e.: psychological evolution, in their life time. Calling the precedent basis of predisposition a "sin" is a risky ploy, but I think it is symbolically consistent in that the base motives and behaviors we can all recognize in ourselves and in others surrounding us originally issue from the nonverbal motives/perceptions of survival-self-interest, and the unrealized thinking/talking brain merely rationalizes (with breathtaking sophistry-cation, no doubt) after the fact.
I represent the general process as ___ > physical evolution > emotional evolution > psychological evolution > spiritual evolution > ____.
While in description, these "stages" are rendered as discrete, the human entity contains all of concurrently them in a flux of interaction. The upward or downward of psychological evolution depends most significantly on what is emphasized (both in the individual and in the surrounding social milieu as should support the individual's development). I picture evolution as analogous to a chart of (ideally un-manipulated) asset price action (e.g.: a "stock chart"), and it is become our responsibility to ensure in our lifetime that trend is up.
Change the title then.
I do make the leap from the title to your conclusions and presumption that this disease you speak of is innate in all of us by the use of your repeated plural pronouns. It makes it sound as if you are speaking on behalf of all people and that they all must have the same problem within their consciousness, their silent self-narrative, that you describe.
I disagree with that presumption and I can't relate to being part of that We.
>>>I can't relate to being part of that We.
Thank you pointing out what (I hope) is obvious. "We" may be worth dying for, but all too frequently "we" turn out to be pols, or authors, telling us what we need to be do, in order to get where we all want to go. Just say Hallelujah! Or Sieg Heil.
By the way, CG, I think you do good work here. Generally.
You mentioned that your belief comes from your reason, yet you state that you cannot get past a title that was, admittedly, clickbait. For such a "reasonable" individual, you are awefully emotional in your response to this article. Hit a little too close to home perhaps?
Pointless and useless meandering. Un-realistic; non-believable; non-engaging. adolescent pap.
Some people love anchovies, others hate them. I am clearly your hated anchovy.
Please turn away before projectile vomiting and have a nice day.
>>Please turn away before projectile vomiting and have a nice day.<<
ego?
Yes. Very much so. I am not without ego, just becoming more aware on a daily basis how large mine is.
Bet mine is bigger than yours. ;)
Hey go easy CD the poor guy got an 800 on his SAT's for chrissakes.
LOL! Never took the SAT. Never went to colledge. Would'a got a zero, probably. Really not an issue tho', it's not your education I'm concerned with, it's your character. I don't care how much you know until I know how much you care.
Trite, I know- but none the less true.
You passed acetinker's character test long ago, in case you're wondering.
A lot of words to describe what has happened to the world after the Fall of Man as described in the book of Genesis.
Although this post is aptly named "Original Sin".....there is no solution put forth. Only a nebulous "The answers always lay within. Maybe we should take a long look sometime."
We have Cog......every poet, philosopher, sooth sayer, swami, mystic, psychologist, world leader has been exorting us to look within......for ANSWERS.
Wrong. The only thing you will find within is the PROBLEM.....not the SOLUTION. That's why we have failed for 10,000 + years. NO ONE will EVER find the answer within....only the INTRACTABLE PROBLEM.
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
Jerimiah 17:9
There is a cure.....a solution. But He was rejected by both Jew and Gentile. And He is continuously rejected every living second by the vast majority of the world. And we wonder why we continue to read things such as yours......and why the solution you and the countless others from antiquity until this very second continues to dissapoint and fail us.
Nobody to blame but ourselves......but we don't and can't blame ourselves because we are too busy looking for solutions in the wrong place.....or even denying there is a problem in the first place.
And He also spoke a parable to them: "A blind man cannot guide a blind man, can he? Will they not both fall into a pit?
Luke 6:39
"We have Cog......every poet, philosopher, sooth sayer, swami, mystic, psychologist, world leader has been exorting us to look within......for ANSWERS."
I beg to differ. Most of the individuals you note in your statement above in fact do offer answers. I have found that true wise men and women claim both humility and ignorance. The only knowledge they profess to possess is to have found their way through the fog while encouraging you to find yours. They are not worthy to show you 'the' path, only to promise you that your path is there if only you will honestly seek it.
There is no escaping the fact that we must all conduct our own fearless and thorough introspection.
HONEST fearless and thorough introspection will lead us to the conclusion that we are absolutely incapable of saving ourselves, and the only option is to appeal to the only One capable of saving us: the Firstborn from Creation, Yeshua, our Intercessor.
"Most of the individuals you note in your statement above in fact do offer answers. "
Answer Desk Rate Schedule:
Answer = $1.00
Answer that Requires Thought = $2.00
Correct Answers = $4.00
Dumb Looks = FREE
LOL
I'll take one answer (and one answer only) please with a side order of dumb looks.
Cog, I enjoyed your essay. Thanks.
I have lived a long time and experienced the changes from youth to aged.
I have had many beliefs about life during my journey and many experiences and have seen and lived in many parts of the world.
I have lost my wife and can't seem to get past that event... like before and after.
Now I believe what Tolstoy said. "The only absolute knowledge attainable by man is that life is meaningless."
I would have denounced Tolstoy's observation when I was a youth or merely sixty yrs of age... Now I agree.
In my experience, you really can't do anything about the hole Snidley. It hurts...only time will make it less intense, it'll always be there, just not as intense.
Hang in man, it'll get better ;-)
And where do we arrive after we "conduct our own fearless and thorough introspection"?
I have no idea since I am not finished with mine. But I suspect it is more about the journey than the destination. We have been conditioned to believe we must measure the value of the destination before deciding whether or not to journey. True growth and introspection doesn't work like that. The ultimate act of faith is beginning the journey with no end in sight and no defined purpose in mind. Take a leap of faith and just begin.
>>I have no idea since I am not finished with mine. But I suspect it is more about the journey than the destination. We have been conditioned to believe we must measure the value of the destination before deciding whether or not to journey. True growth and introspection doesn't work like that. The ultimate act of faith is beginning the journey with no end in sight and no defined purpose in mind. Take a leap of faith and just begin.<<
groovy
"I have no idea since I am not finished with mine. But I suspect it is more about the journey than the destination."
Sorry....I'm going to lose my religion a bit on this bit of claptrap that is most certainly NOT exclusive to Cog....and call,
BULLSHIT !
"The ultimate act of faith is beginning the journey with no end in sight and no defined purpose in mind. Take a leap of faith and just begin."
Uh huh......so let me get this straight. You find faith in God and Jesus a leap of faith TOO FAR....even with an explicitly defined destination.
But your mind thinks it LOGICAL to take a "leap of faith" to begin "a journey with no end in sight and no defined purpose in mind."
And yet I bet you look at yourself as a man of "reason" and "enlightenment". And yet your own words belie that notion.
One relies on faith when reason cannot take you any further where your mind (and perhaps your body) want to go. Legitimate faith is based on sound reasoning and properly evaluated evidence. Doesn't mean that your faith is well placed or that success is guarenteed. But when sound reasoning and properly evaluated evidence is applied.....faith, which pushes you farther than either reason or evidence can, usually is well rewarded with the answer(s) you seek. But first comes reason and evidence.
You give NO reason, NO evidence, not even PROPER REASONING with your statement of faith. LA DE DA....just go out there with no reason, no map, no evidence, no "end in sight"....."no defined purpose in mind". You just described the journey of a soap bubble.....with all the same physical properties and outcome for the life of that bubble. That is to say.....blown around by whatever winds may come....eventually to pop and die and disappear. For there was nothing but a thin membrane holding back a space filled with air. Inconsequential.
And that is what you pass off as "wisdom" Cog? That is supposed to inspire people to change their evil hearts in such a way as to affect planetary change.....even if it is one person at a time....and takes hundreds if not thousands of years?
And yet, we have had thousands of years of you bubble blowers....and your blown bubbles all floating around in your "truth" and "seeking your truth". And all we have to show for it is a world awashed in soap scum.....and blood.
Sorry.....can't make that kind of leap of faith. The evidence is thousands of years deep. It's cross cultural, historical, and complete. Reason demands an accounting of it before a leap of faith is to be legitimately taken. And it is NOT reasonable to take a leap of faith on some nebulous notion of a journey when you don't even know what your are looking for.....where you are going....and what the outcome you want to have. And it is criminal actually to tell people to plug in their circumstance into your template of your "personal journey to enlightenment".
For the evidence is quite clear.....the conclusion reasoned. You are not enlightened at all. You are blind....stumbling around in the dark on a journey with "no end in sight and no defined purpose in mind"
I can properly and reasonably make this judgement of you.....simply because I was you at one time. You mind....your language, your thoughts.......they were mirror images of my own. In some respects....they still are.
But I grew up.....and applied my God given reason....my God given mind......my God given intellect....my God given talents in collecting evidence and looking at data, keeping what was valid and discarding what was not.....(as a scientist, meteorologist....award winning and published). My journey....which I am still on.....is interesting as it is heartbreaking. Is surprising in ways I could not imagine....yet well defined....with a destination just as defined but hidden with untold suprises and revelations to amaze and satisfy to come.
It's not easy.....I fail at it EVERY.....SINGLE.....DAY. But that's ok. It's easy to strive and suffer and even fail for someone who forgives you......gives you the very grace that the world cannot and will not EVER give any of us....which is the precise thing that we all need for sustinence just to make it through another day of this hell we have made for ourselves.
That's my journey.....and it can be yours too. Trust me.....it takes WAY less faith than yours. Or....said more properly....it takes faith that is WAY more reasonable.
Sorry....I'm going to lose my religion a bit on this bit of claptrap
I don't know what kind of religion you're losing there Jumbo, but your personal attacks and erroneous assumptions are so far off base, it's a bit embarrassing to watch.
Most faiths affirm that God's divinity is within each of us. What kind of authority do you think you possess that you judge that which Cog looks within for and claim it is more holy than thou's?
but your personal attacks and erroneous assumptions are so far off base, it's a bit embarrassing to watch."Most faiths affirm that God's divinity is within each of us."
It's embarrasing that my critique is considered an attack. Cog threw his words out there for us to read, ruminate over, ponder, and ultimately determine if they have any merit. I thought I was being very clear why it was I thought his thoughts and faith are without merit......particularly in light of history and the very fact that his words and thoughts and indeed his faith...in really nothing all.....was not original....at all. Regurgitating solutions that have no effacacy is not my idea of wisdom. Call that an attack if you will. You kinda need to look up the word attack and refine your definition.
Most faiths affirm that God's divinity is within each of us.
Which is why humanity has failed to bring divinity to earth.....because there is no divinity inside of us. Most faiths lie.
What kind of authority do you think you possess that you judge that which Cog looks within for.....
If you had read carefully and closely enough...I appealed to no authority in my critique of Cog's journey. I used his own words. He himself said he had no answers to the very issues he presented so eloquently. I am right simply on the basis of that alone to call him out on it.....no matter how he couches it in pseudo-philosophical verbiage and new age mentality.
.....and claim it is more holy than thou's?
Never said mine was more holy. Reread again please.
If I could take a moment to differentiate between faith and religion. I am not certain the attempt to equate faith with organized religion is benign or coincidental in today's society.
"I beg to differ. Most of the individuals you note in your statement above in fact do offer answers. I have found that true wise men and women claim both humility and ignorance. The only knowledge they profess to possess is to have found their way through the fog while encouraging you to find yours. They are not worthy to show you 'the' path, only to promise you that your path is there if only you will honestly seek it.
There is no escaping the fact that we must all conduct our own fearless and thorough introspection."
Thanks for making my point. So many paths.....so many solutions. No one able to tell you what is right for you.....but nebulous, unconfirmed conviction that YOUR path is out there. And no REAL proof that the one that they are on.....the one that is supposedly RIGHT for them.....is actually that efficacious at all.
So tell me......if there are SO MANY paths of truth out there.....how come we are no closer to finding the TRUTH. And no closer than our pre-historic ancestors to the only evolutionary step that is of any lasting worth......the evolution of the heart.......from whence all peace....and all evil springs from.
We are still simply evil monkies.......much more sophisticated and technologically adept.....but still evil.
There is only ONE path.....only ONE truth. TRUTH by its very definition and existence is singular. One. Whole. Although Metaphysical and Quantum Physical....it makes up one whole Quantum Spiritual. As light is both particle and wave.....it is still simply light. God in Three Persons.......yet one Whole entity. You and Mrs. Cog......two entities.....but one person....one love.....one Truth.
When you have only One Path......and there is only One Truth.....then simplicity is a given. What is universally difficult for all of us is to accept how SIMPLE the choice is. Choose the ONLY PATH.....or don't. Choose the ONLY TRUTH.....or don't. Choose the ONLY WAY or don't. How we ALL strive for a simpler life.....what we ALL give each day to make things simpler for us........and yet.....because of the mystery and the depth of the evil that lies in EVERY human heart, including my own, we piss on that choice and go looking for MULTIPLE PATHWAYS to MULTIPLE TRUTHS.
That.....is the very definition of insanity. And thus.....the insane world we live in today.
You're only solution is to present none....but the encouragement to find multiple ways to multiple truths which leads to nothing but The Red Queen Effect. All that running around. And nothing comes from it but exhaustion, cynicism, hopelessness, self delusion....and eventually forgetfullness.
Why forgetfullness? Because that is the only explanation for why people find your words so seemingly thoughtful....or even wise. When they are simply the 9,257,385,251st attempt to get people to look inside for an answer that is not there to solve a world problem that can never be solved by exhorting people to find their own way when we all stumble in the dark, blind as bats.
And denying the LIGHT that is right before our very eyes.
And THAT.....is the depth of the evil that lies in every heart of every person alive today, that has ever lived in the past.....and will live to come.
Assigning blame accomplishes absolutely nothing... we can't go back and change the past.
The outcome of this situation, as a society, is still to be determined and it will effect each of us according to how we personally deal with these revelations.
I have realized in my life that the most important lessons to learn are also usually the most painful ones. What is less obvious is that if dealt with successfully, such disasters also hold the greatest potential for improving the quality of our lives. What determines the outcome, and our future, is how we deal with our lessons and the associated pain. What doesn't kill us outright has the potential to make us stronger.
With a 10,000+ year history of rinse and repeat it does not look promising that there is a quick or easy solution to the pickle we are in. Those we trusted to... but failed... to uphold our agreed upon standards, and those who abused them, between them, hold virtually all the cards in this situation. It is obvious that expecting/demanding that they resolve this situation equitably for all parties will only result in more of the same.
If things are going to change for the better it is up to us individually to do 'whatever is necessary' to take control of our own lives.
It is common knowledge that severely abusive relationships rarely change for the better. For an abused spouse to survive it is usually recommended they, for their own safety, leave such relationships.
If the relationship has previously provided a financially secure and comfortable lifestyle, along with the physical abuse, the 'whatever is necessary' can appear impossible to achieve. All at the same time we must cope with losing our trust in someone dear to us, our faith in our society, and usually also confront giving up the comfortable lifestyle we have become used to. That doing 'something' about the situation will turn our lives upside down is a given.
Been there, done that, and have no regrets about walking away. For me the outcome has been the best time of my life.
Removing oneself from the dog eat dog segment of humanity, makes one realize that the majority of humanity actually cares about each other. Help yourself, and others, and you will get what you need. You will also find that more than money makes the world go round.
There is hope if only we are willing to confront our fears.
Fear is the mind killer - Dune.
There is no spoon. The Matrix.
The answer is always to remember that waves pass, and that our trust must be in the ocean itself, not in what it manifests...
http://www.guyfinley.org/free-content/writings/unpublished-writings/4366
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom"
Proverbs 9:10
Fear unchecked is certainly a mind killer. But....fear harnessed and acted on in the right circumstance can save your life. Has been since the stone age. And fearing the Lord is not blind quivering against a malevolent diety. It's having the wisdom to know that He could snuff you out in a eye-blink like the mythological gods of fairy tales......but He choses not to....and even desires relationship like a real human father does.....at least an idealized human father would.
As to the notion there is no spoon. Of course there is. That is some cheap quasi-buddist claptrap from a white guy in Hollywood. Doesn't even BEGIN to qualify as wisdom.
Unless you want to apply it to the world today. That it's "natural".....that it's "beautiful".....that humans are simply higher order "animals".
Since the Fall.....nothing is "natural"....or "right". Every thing from the lowest bacteria to the highest of man's aspirations is irrevocably tainted and doomed to failure, disease and rot.
There is another reality.....and it will reveal itself in due time. And this present reality will burn away never to be remembered again.
So....yeah....I guess you could say "there is no spoon". But you're applying it wrongly. We do indeed live on Prison Planet....and no amount of self delusion and telling yourself over and over....."There is no spoon.....there is no spoon.....there's no place like home.....there's no place like home....<click> <click>.....is going to change that.
But please.....be my guest. Exhaustion is the body's and the mind's way of making you stop and take pause....and perhaps try a different way.
"Assigning blame accomplishes absolutely nothing... we can't go back and change the past."
Wrong. Assigning blame is a WONDERFULLY ILLUMINATING way of creating an example.....a template if you will....so you can chart a better way into the future.
It serves two purposes.....it goes a long way to ensure that the wrong way is not pursued again by the guilty party and the bad example is not copied by those following.
It serves as the basis for compare and contrast to once again....highlight the correct path into the future and the rejection of the wrong way forever.....or as long as it can be until the past is ignored and forgotten.
Now assigning blame is fraught with peril and has to be done judicially and with prudence. But we have tossed this great tool away for the price of political correctness at our detriment.
Blame and cause are not the same thing. I would agree with what you say if it is applied to cause.
However blame is a very deep rabbit hole. There is not one truth in anything and throwing the hot potato of truth back and forth just wastes precious time. Regardless of who/what is ultimately responsible, we now know we have a problem. The most critical item on the agenda is to deal with the problem in a timely manner.
Recriminations regarding who is to blame for what generally escalate into nasty violent confrontations which hurt everyone involved.
Walk away... learn from the lesson and let bygones be bygones. Put your energy into trying to do better.
"Recriminations regarding who is to blame for what generally escalate
into nasty violent confrontations which hurt everyone involved. Walk away... learn from the lesson and let bygones be bygones. Put your energy into trying to do better."
So hard to do when we are consumed by our ego.
"If things are going to change for the better it is up to us individually to do 'whatever is necessary' to take control of our own lives."
Pray tell how do you do that......when you had NOTHING to do with your existence coming into being in the first place?
First things first.....you....do...not....own....anything. Including your life. From a secular standpoint.....you come into a completely furnished Prison Planet with different levels of Tyranny depending upon where your mother happened to be when she spit you out of her loins.
So you grow up and move away. To somewhere else.....with perhaps LESS amounts of Tyranny....but Tyranny none the less.
Then your mind is not ever free, for it battles everyday with minions of the system of Tyranny to control it. Not to mention the battle everyday you have inside yourself. You are never free of that fight until the day you die.
And from the spiritual side of things.....God created you. Therefore He owns you. He gave you the mind and the freedom to reject that reality......but that does not change that fundamental Truth.
You don't need to "take control of your life".....you just need to take hold of the Truth.
Nature is a cruel master and does not play favorites.
It is up to us as individuals to make what we can of our lives against whatever odds we may be presented with. That a roll of the dice decides which lessons we are confronted with doesn't negate the need to deal with them. We either learn to swim in the current or we drown.
A perceived prison planet is only a structure of our minds. It exists only because we believe it exists. If we stop desiring/fearing what TPTB's prison offers/threatens it will no longer contain us.
The only thing anyone owns, including god, is the energy they control with their mind. Ours is do with as we see fit. It is up to each of us individually whether we live in heaven or hell. All a prison can do is scare us into giving up control of our own minds.
My vision of god is very different from yours. To me God is a combination of all the energy that exists. We are all equal parts of this energy.
Because we have free will, even though it is severely tested, it is obvious that god is the combination of all our actions not an overseer directing us. Everyone of us has all the options/abilities of god.
Existence is structured as a circle not as a pyramid. Although there are many pretenders, there is no big boss. The buck always stops with each of us.
If we are fearful and vengeful we will see such a god.
If we feel weak and powerless we will be such.
I have no desire to best TPTB at their own game. It is not the only one in town. Their trials and tribulations are even worse than ours. If anything I feel sorry for them. They are so fearful that they feel they need whole armies of slaves and soldiers to protect them. Although it is a gilded cage, their prison is even more difficult to escape. The more you need/have to lose, the harder it is to be free.
Instead of slaving for TPTB I am playing my own game using mostly my own energy and enjoying it immensely. Talk about feeling free. If we all just stop doing what they tell us to do they will no longer have any power over us. No slaves, no army, makes them the same as us.
"A perceived prison planet is only a structure of our minds. It exists only because we believe it exists. If we stop desiring/fearing what TPTB's prison offers/threatens it will no longer contain us."
And that folks.....is textbook self delusion.
Sounds great in theory
""It is up to each of us individually whether we live in heaven or hell. All a prison can do is scare us into giving up control of our own minds."
Since you have the choice I guess you chose heaven. Please decribe.
stev3e "Since you have the choice I guess you chose heaven. Please describe."
A strange phenomena lies beneath our perception of heaven or hell. As in Cogs story. It only takes a blink of an eye, and nothing but our understanding of a situation changing, without any accompanying physical changes, to turn the perception of our lives from one's of heaven to one's of hell, or indeed hell to heaven in other instances.
What state we live in is not determined by physical factors, it is determined by how we chose to perceive our circumstances. Even TPTB who physically have access to everything one could desire often have substance abuse and self harm problems. Suicide is also quite common in this class. A friend was married to a wealthy princess who according to our society's beliefs had everything one could desire. She committed suicide by jumping out of a hotel room window in Paris because she was so depressed with her life.
Heaven or Hell is simply a state of mind which our free will has the right to determine. Our circumstances only impact this perception if we allow them to.
For the survivors of Cog's story there is an enormous amount of new information available as a result of this situation finally being addressed that can be used to make everyone involved healthier and stronger people. Healthy people treat others better so this situation has the potential to make the world a better place for everyone. If they do the work necessary to integrate the information gained into their knowledge base they will eventually be thankful for the understanding gained. At least that's how it works for me.
Looking at the part I played in damaging interactions in my past, without laying blame, eventually made me realize how I unthinkingly, and unintentionally contributed to the problems. A very humbling, but healthy experience.
The more we confront and question circumstances that make us intuitively uncomfortable in our lives, the more skilled we become at resolving problems before they become critical. Practice makes perfect and the more we try the better our lives will get.
To me Heaven is the ability to see the good in every situation and using that perception to grow.
To me hell is unthinkingly lashing out in situations such as Cog described and harming others, and ourselves, because we feel wronged or cheated.