I can assure you, I'm not looking for the same things as you. I respect everyone's right to believe what they want, but I refuse to promote the "one world, one god" let's-hold-hands-and-be-friends philosophies. As soon as we're all singing Kumbaya we lose the precious things that make us unique.

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"The Lord can make you tumble, the Lord can make you turn, the Lord can make you overflow...but the Lord can't make you burn." - Randy Newman

You suggest a very good question. How to become a real individual?

Interesting..... I didn't even say what I was looking for. But it seems to me that we're all looking to love and be loved. Do you agree?

[/quote]I respect everyone's right to believe what they want, but I refuse to promote the "one world, one god" let's-hold-hands-and-be-friends philosophies. As soon as we're all singing Kumbaya we lose the precious things that make us unique.[/quote]

Why do you feel we can't be loved unless we're all the same?

I never brought up love...you seem to want to narrow everything down to singularities, like love or divinity. The complexities of belief, faith, religion, and philosophy are vast and deserve more than casual dismissal or general summation. I think you do us all a disservice, yourself included, when you oversimplify such things.

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"The Lord can make you tumble, the Lord can make you turn, the Lord can make you overflow...but the Lord can't make you burn." - Randy Newman

Alright...... then perhaps you could explain a little more to me what you meant by:

And also:


Perhaps I missed something.

aaahhh...octavius...or could it be..that you might give it a disservice to complicate it...

Well, if those are the only two paths there are, then I'm not on either one.

It's a shame, really, that we humans so like to neatly classify everything that we can wind up lumping the richness of the human experience into such narrow boxes.

I mean, "moral" is only mentioned on the right-hand path above. So everybody who doesn't do god is immoral? And everybody who worships is completely moral? I don't think so, and I could open any paper, any day, anywhere in the world and find counter-examples aplenty to both.

On my path, the thing most valued is learning and understanding. The problem for me is that all theistic religions provide "revealed" answers which I am convinced are nothing but the musings of men. That does not make them, in my view, "things to be learned," because they don't represent any sort of reality, only the imaginations of those who were "revealed" to. I read them like I read any fiction -- in the full knowledge that it might be entertaining, may provide lots of new insights into what it means to be human, but is never-the-less fiction.

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evangelicalhumanist: Greek "eu"=good and "angelos"=messenger. Spreading the good news of Humanism.

Angeleyes and Octivious brought up a good point. What is behind a path? What are we seeking? Is everyone truly seeking something else? Why would we seek to be unique?

Now some may say they are not seeking....but is that true? As long as we still desire...there will be seeking. Only those that are free of desire are no longer seeking.

Angeleyes brought up that we are all seeking love...to love and be loved and I agree. If we felt truly loved (unconditionally) would we still be seeking/desire?

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May your awareness be perfection

Nick

I know you said you wouldt be one for ACIM but you speak in the same terms


It is a vertical scale and Jesus simply bridges the gap between lower and higher awareness
I know because I have expereinced

Quote from ACIM follows

T-1.II.4. "No man cometh unto the Father but by me" does not mean that I am in any way separate or different from you except in time, and time does not really exist. 2 The statement is more meaningful in terms of a vertical rather than a horizontal axis. p7 3 You stand below me and I stand below God. 4 In the process of "rising up," I am higher because without me the distance between God and man would be too great for you to encompass. 5 I bridge the distance as an elder brother to you on the one hand, and as a Son of God on the other. 6 My devotion to my brothers has placed me in charge of the Sonship, which I render complete because I share it. 7 This may appear to contradict the statement "I and my Father are one," but there are two parts to the statement in recognition that the Father is greater.

My experiences with ACIM as in attending lectures etc. has convinced me that ACIM leads to exactly what is warned about above in relation to Karma Yoga. That is why I am wary of it.