The summary

I think the best way to enter a summary of all I've said so far is to use a basic idea from the Holy Bible's creation story. While I'm neither a Christian nor a Hebrew, I was raised as a Christian and after joining the U.S. Navy at age 18 and trying out a variety of exciting "wrong roads" (as charactized by Christianity) I tried a couple of different times to return to the fold only to discover that I no longer could believe what I was supposed to be able to believe in order to back up the beliefs of the other church members. For me, a goodly part of the worth of the church is a fellowship of acceptance. Where acceptance of one's beliefs is denied, there is no fellowship. The other church members seemed completely able to continue to believe -for me - truly outrageous ideas (when coupled to the truth which had been unfolded to human understanding across the past 2000 years). My thinking was a threat to their complacency. Since I couldn't believe what I couldn't believe, the mandate, "have faith," simply didn't work.


If it took 200 years for the Catholic Church to apologize to Galileo, how much longer will it take for religious leaders to admit to the same knowledge Bishop John Shelby Spong was taught in seminary and apologize to their membership for loading up the heads of innocent children with guilt and shame for no other reason than to maintain a position of power over them and/or, hang on to their lucrative societal positions. Forgive them almighty Blessed Truth, for they know not what they do . . . I hope.


So no, I am not a Christian. But wisdom is wisdom, and to forgo wisdom simply because it is written in the Holy Books of some other faith than one's own is to lose the opportunity to gain in wisdom oneself. So, in the Garden of Eden there were trees for humans to eat from. Yet, as soon as we hear that these trees include a tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we know that we are not talking about natural trees. There obviously is no tree of nature which could provide food of this type. Thus perhaps we could agree that this is not a physical garden being spoken of, but rather a spiritual garden. When understood as a spiritual garden, then we might consider that within this garden would be trees of knowledge of various types. Perhaps a tree of knowledge of physics law and math law, and astronomy trees and biology and botany trees, perhaps also philosphy and psychology trees, all of course, providing food for the added wisdom of this new creature, the human. Yet this special spiritual tree we are told of, is not a tree which holds physical poison, for we are not talking about physical matters here. This is a tree whose fruit will kill one spiritually. The admonition from the Garden's owner is, don't eat from the tree 0f the knowledge of good and evil or you will become spiritually dead. That, it seems obvious to me, is the crux of this story. The spiritually dead cannot possibly walk in the Garden with the powers of Love, Truth, Wisdom, and Understanding, because their knowledge of good and evil needs to divide the spiritual dimensions of existence into an evil god and and a good god. And, of course, the spiritual garden cannot be divided by any within it. Acceptance is the key to the garden. And Thy will, not my will be done, is the proper spiritual attitude to hold, regardless of what name is given to the "Thy." Only when I stay in the realm of not being able to understand, rather than thinking I know how things ought to be, can I accept that somehow Love, Truth, Wisdom, and Understanding really are backing up this business of living, and all seeming evidence to a contrary idea must surely be necessary for the continued growth of those four powers.

Bertrand Russell called the, "Thy" the empire of fate. He was saying thereby, until one can accept life on life's terms on a daily basis, one cannot learn how to feel really good all day every day. J. Krishnamirti, a spiritual philosopher of the recent past, once said to his audience, "Do you want to know my secret? (the audience listened for some great profound statement breathlessly) "I don't care what happens," He replied. Most of them never realized they had heard the only profound statement they needed in order to understand Mr. Krishnamirti.

So the summary is this: if I'm hurting inside, I'm thinking wrong concerning what is important in being alive, and my job is to unlearn all that I have been taught in order to be able to learn what really is important in being alive. When I am willing to do this, then I will come to the conclusion, ultimately, that the only possible thing that is important in being alive is that humanity, as it is moved from egoism towards humility, is providing added wisdom, truth, understanding, and most importantly love to that amount of those qualitiews which have thus far existed within the spiritual dimensions of existence. And this, of course, makes my personal job nothing more than learning how to feel really, really good about being alive, and the humbling truths necessary for learning are always available to me, every time I hurt inside and am willing to internalize them.

So a proper prayer, to whatever I wish to call the spiritual dimensions of existence (i. e. those dimensions wherein are housed the very real powers of Love, Truth, Wisdom, and Understanding we humans have to deal with - or with the absence of within us - on a daily basis) would be something along the lines of what follows.

Thank you, Blessed Truth (my personal choice) that you have shown me the way to let you lead me from egoism with its nil capacity to love, towards humility with its infinite capacity to love. I now see that you provide me daily with the humbling truths I require to keep on growing along spiritual lines, that you instantly grant me forgiveness for my trespasses so long as I grant that same instant forgiveness to those who trespass against me, and that, since all I am being asked to do is learn how to feel really good inside in order to be moved from egoism with its eternal neediness towards humility with its final end to that ego-neediness, then you are moving me from the need to flee down wrong roads to fulfill my need for elation in a way that gives me nothing at all to be tempted to feel proud about. It is your Power that changes me, and any glory for that change most assured belongs to you, not to me. Amen! Love and Blessings - Chuck