I may appear to be one of them at first glance

[Guest queen annie]

Anyway...as far as the idea of universalism as being applicable to my understanding and level of spiritual educatio--it is actually a relatively new term to me--I first heard it when it was hurled at me in a full force blast of so-called christian piety on another board not too long ago. I thought it was actually a good term, to be honest--because I see no boundaries separating the universe, my own soul, the Spirit of God, and that concept which most call 'eternal life' but I think of as 'reality.'

 

I guess any well-read churchian would consider me lost in a 'new-age' muddle of pantheist universalism (only because the mystic stoicism which is underlying is probably beyond their ability to detect much less identify and understand). The view I have legitimately and progressively arrived at regarding all things spiritual in nature is one which seems to me to be the only logical and plausible explanation possible--it is fundamentally a simple and solid metaphysical 'big picture' which is a clearly unified structure (seemingly a miracle, oftentimes in my mind's eye) which connects and joins all major aspects of what I perceive as reality--as well as the reality of our history as the human race, the basic supporting theories of physics as well as science in general, all the way (grab your tomatoes, folks) to the inner teachings hidden in the depths of the bible.

 

I have spent my whole life on a (sometimes) sick and relentless pursuit of knowledge, input, any kind of information I could suck from all that I encountered I grabbed up like a cerebral pirate. I amassed what could be figuratively be described as a big huge steaming pile of bullshit--seemingly unrelated tidbits and morsels of facts, observations, and products of ceaseless mental rumination. I figured that the best I could hope for was one day getting to be a contestant on Jeopardy!

 

That's not what happened, though--it was kind of like Little Shop of Horrors--out of the pile of cerebral fertilizer there began to emerge something I had never conceived of--a bird of paradise, perhaps--an allegorical pheonix rising from the ashes of all the years I'd spent lurking in the non-fiction area of the local library. Figuratively new life, but in reality what it amounted to was an intensive period of 6 months or maybe longer in which I was overwhelmed by a clarity of perception and what could only be rightly described as revelations--sometimes the thoughts flew into my head in such a way that I walked about in a literal fog for 2 or 3 days. I was overwhelmed. And even though I'd always had a running monologue with my idea of God going on within me--I'd not gone to church since the day I'd left home at 18 nor had I read the bible in all that time, either. (not that church was a bad experience--the only bad thing I can say with all honesty is that is was bland to the point of transparency, and I guess I just didn't see the point in going somewhere just to stand still when I could advance on my own every day toward something I sensed to be more present outside the church walls than within--no one liked the questions I asked and I have never been the type to see any profit in 'going through the motions' in any situation) I read all sorts of other spiritual texts, ancient and just sort of 'old'--as well as anything else I could get my hands on. I probably went through the whole dewey decimal system and never met a book I didn't like.

 

But when that bird-flower starting to grow, I was suddenly compelled to pick up a bible again and read it with interest. I seriously couldn't put it down! Even if I had wanted to. It is hard to describe what it's like to be compelled like that. It's not something you hate to do but can't help doing--hating it the whole time. I have never studied one subject or focused on one subject/activity for over a month and a half tops, in all my days. I devour everything I do with an intensity that yeilds bumper crops--but after the blossoms drop off and the fruit is picked, I'm off to the next pumpkin patch down the road. That wasn't the case this time--I was totally immersed in that bible for nearly a year--I didn't have a job, have always been a bit of an insomniac--and every waking minute of that time I was reading and studying and when I had to wash dishes or do laundry--any sort of mindless task including taking a shower, knowledge and information bombarded me the whole time---sometimes it was more exhausting to do the dishes than it was to be poring over the fine print in purse-sized KJV (the first bible I'd ever bought myself, too. $20 at Hastings.) I'm not talking just things you might consider of a religious nature--my perspective has cleared in the widest possible view--and it seems that these days there is never a time when I pose a question to myself which I don't find myself immediately giving answer to--from where that answer comes, I don't know--but I know that it's correct, it just fits down in it's little hole like a good little peg, whether I seek to confirm it or not, it feels like truth and it certainly isn't anything recognizable such as the product of my own imagination--I've always been comfortable in solitude, and so I have grown to know (and love heh heh) myself quite well.

 

The clincher in regard to the 'burden of proof' (from a personal standpoint, only) is that these things I've come to understand make far too much logical sense in an ordered manner that is certainly not within my cognitive powers to assimiliate. These things that have happened to me, and the changes which have come about in my life within the same time frame have had an impact on both my love and my mom. Scott was transformed from a disinterested skeptic into a believer (and he had some amazing knowledge attach to him almost literally overnight--at least over the course of a couple of weeks. And he asked me to baptise him--he had a conviction in his heart it was the right thing to do but wasn't about to go to a church just for that purpose--we went down to the river and I did as he wanted me to. And I am telling the honest to goodness non-embellished truth in this next sentence: I saw a change in him immediately (not instant, but over about the space of a week). It wasn't contrived, extreme, or fake in any way---and it's not gone away, it was not like a fluctuation, but like a transformation, too. Not as intense or overwhelming as mine had been (but each of us has a way that we travel our road and as long as it's real it is good). I was baptized when I was 8 years old--as I remember I felt compelled to do that, too. I believe it is important but I do not understand why or how. All I know is that I have experienced some sort of something that I can't explain by any other rational means.

 

My mom has had some changes come about, too. She's always just gone to church because the way she was raised, 'you just go to church every Sunday.' It was a 70+ year established habit--and my mother is what I would call an 'over-achiever' as far as being a creature of habit. She was born the year of the ox if that gives any extra clue. Also---the preacher happens to live right across the street from us. But my mom broke her lifelong habit of going to church (of her own volition but I did encourage her as much as was fairly possible--only because I love her and couldn't, in good conscience, not point out that which she did not see. That is, she didn't see the truths I was able to share with her until I told her of them. She immediately saw the truth and reason in my words---and knew that I would only want something right and true that would be to her benefit--and she had no problem breaking one of the longest habits she'd ever had! And she even withstood about 2 months of Sunday afternoon 'we-noticed-you-weren't- in-church-this-morning-here-is-some-crackers-and-welch's-so- you-get-your-gold-star-this-week' visit without relenting or entertaining thoughts of maybe going back out of guilt or some other wierd emotion solicited by pastoral efforts.

 

I only shared those things so that it might be clear how serious and for real these things I say truly are. I didn't come to this forum out of some secret desire to be a heroic christian soldier or to even blatantly try to change anyone's mind. spamandham put a link to here on a board we are both members of--and I was definitely fed up with all the christian attitude I could possibly stomach and remain true to my standards and ideals concerning my attitude and feelings toward other people at that moment in time. I felt there was a gulp or two of fresh air here for me. But there was another reason, too--more significant of an influence. And that is the fact that I have had a certain degree of anger, frustration, or maybe just plain old disgust--that I've carried in my heart all my adult years as a result of the damage and injustices that can be laid to the charge of the institute of christianity as a whole, and often directly upon this or that individual whose path crosses mine in their maleficient crusading in the name of what they perceive as the gospel (which is really just a bunch of hogwash that they probably need for convoluted psychological reasons of which they are completely oblivious to) and their god given duty to indiscrimately preach with absolutely no qualifications of either knowledge or attitude. They're all so busy preaching hell and brandishing a name they don't een understand that they have totally missed the true message of Messiah and of the witness of the scripture, which is

 

LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF BECAUSE NO ONE'S GETTING OUT OF HERE WTH THEIR MISERABLE HIDES NOR IS ANYONE EXCUSED TO GO TO HELL EITHER.

 

 

 

 

I basically view the whole of material reality a product of consciousness which is, in scientific terms, the fundamental energy that is both brick and brick layer--and we are all bricks in the same structure--our mortar is the positive attraction we observe as magnetics, which we perceive as love, happiness, peace--all that stuff.

 

I don't subscribe the hell/condemnation/tyrannical concept of God and spirituality--the underlying idea of 'salvation' is rooted in the need for each of us to regain a conscious awareness of the bigger picture of which fringes we have explored under the auspices of physics. I believe without hesitation that there was a man who did live and die for the unselfish motive of actually demonstrating to humanity that death is not doom, or even a punishment, but a barrier caused by our physical existence--something we must all overcome by believing we live far beyond carbon based organic biological boundaries which are very convincing.

 

We are 'saved' by believing because if we realize death is not the big bad wolf, but rather just a short tunnel to the other side (or perhaps even a trip through a black hole to the land of light and 4th dimensional donuts instead of round planets who knows?)

 

I do have every confidence that all souls are headed for the same destination--but I don't think it really qualifies as universalism in the sense most consider that sort of 'theology.' Universalism is the theory that all men will be 'saved.' But it comes strapped to the idea that we are being given some sort of pardon for our own involuntary yet somehow totally heinous and inexcusable existence in the first place. It carries the idea of all souls reaching some sort of worthy state that isn't consistent with our history or nature as human beings.

 

What it is really all about is love. Love and unity and the restoration of our sight and conscious perception of being a part of one single mass of living energy, of Mind/Spirit/God--something as true and real as the skin which currently serves the role of 'Satan' by deluding us to believe there is any way to get out of the group hug at the end.

 

 

LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR BECAUSE HE'LL BE GOING WITH THE REST OF US LATER ON....

 

where? dunno.

 

It's gonna be rent-free. though, and I have it on good authority that there will be a absolute zero tolerance policy in regard to anything resembling 'christianity.'

[Asimov]

tooooooo loooooong

[Guest queen annie]

I know it! That is the seriously abridged version, too.

 

So I'm guessing you read, like, the first 1 1/2 paragraphs?

[Asimov]

I know it!  That is the seriously abridged version, too. 

 

So I'm guessing you read, like, the first 1 1/2 paragraphs?

 

 

I skimmed through it.

[Dianka]

QA,Welcome to the site!

 

uh, oops, I mean

 

 

:tongue:

[♦ nivek ♦]

Hiya Annie,

 

Dunno quite what to say about *all* of your posting, save to say that ExC has a wealth of information that a seeking mind can use. (Did read entire contents however..)

 

Feel welcome to look through the archived materials, the Testimonies section, and continue to participate here in Forums.

 

May not have the "Easy Answer" all that handy in my Easy Answer Jar, but I betcha someone here at ExC will..

 

kevinL