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E. Raymond Rock ^(3,087) United States

E. Raymond Rock

Dhammabucha Rocksprings Meditation Center

Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up!

Posted Friday, November 20, 2009 (16 hours 1 minute ago.) Viewed 114 times.

"Follow not what wise men say, follow instead in their footsteps." (Old Zen Saying). Meaning that in order to reach the levels of elevated consciousness that these wise men achieved, you must live the life that they did, or, "Follow in their footsteps" in order to reach those lofty plateaus. Only reading and following their words doesn‘t work.

If you look, not necessarily at what Christ said but the life that he led as depicted in the Bible - He was not a family man. Nor was He a businessman, or a politician, or nationalistic. All of that Old Testament stuff; procreation, obedience, commandments is for a different audience, an audience that was not capable of understanding for themselves and had to be told what to do by an authority figure.

The New Testament, which according to the Gnostic Gospels (conveniently excluded in the few hand-picked Gospels of the Catholic Church that originated Christianity) portrays Christ as leading a simple life and trying to show us how to find peace within. And that we are all Sons of God.

But contemporary Christians do not follow in Christ's footsteps. Instead, they take selective, self-serving quotes out of the Old Testament that supports their thirst for accumulations of material and psychological things, and open the floodgates to acquisition, ambition, wealth and accumulation.

Old Testament views proclaim the accumulation of stuff as a spiritual pursuit, where just the opposite is true. Accumulations, whether they be large screen TVs, large families, large beliefs, stock portfolios, or large egos, are a burden on the human mind. Accumulation does nothing but induce fear into a mind that is naturally fear free.

I believe that Christ knew and understood this perfectly and tried to indicate by His life how to live, which is simply. But when one conveniently uses the Old Testament (old consciousness without personal insight) to justify their desires, and only uses the New Testament (new consciousness with personal insight), to justify their belief that whatever they do is excused by their faith in Christ, then you have a situation where they are not following in the footsteps of their teacher.

The old argument is that Christ was not here to teach, but simply here to save us. Therefore, we can do pretty much as we please. That's very convenient, and that's fine if that is what you want to believe, but I posit that if you look at a life filled with accumulations, including the accumulation of material things, strong opinions, unyielding spiritual views and the super egos that result, you will find a deep level of stress and unhappiness cloaked in a deluded, trance-like belief that all is happiness.

This is Old Testament consciousness with no insight. This is delusion compared to the enlightening ideas of the New testament, according to the Gnostic Gospels. I think that Christ knew that desires and attachments to things that we accumulate eventually cause disappointment and unhappiness, and tried to show us another avenue by the way he lived His life.

The religious wars that have resulted from tight, unyielding views have been anything other than happiness. And the current atmosphere of hatred between Christians, Moslems and Jews, openly expounded upon in the media, will only lead to a nuclear war.

Then we all lose. And I'll just bet that the religious chicken hawks that are now squawking behind their safe computers that this conflict is our destiny as prophesized in the Bible will be the first to pee their pants when the mushroom clouds rise above their neighborhoods! There is a concept and a reality about proclaiming the desire to join God in heaven!

For Christ's sake! Christ was trying to teach peace! Don't you get it? In absence of material things, of strong opinions, of unyielding spiritual views and super egos . . . is love! Yes! Love cannot happen until those other things go away! You cannot love your neighbor as long as you have strong opinions and unyielding views, because you will try to persuade the poor chap to believe your way. Only then will you love your neighbors; when they give in and you can control them.

You know, Christian monks and nuns (not priests and preachers) understand this; they live a life of poverty A Buddhist monk or nun, when they take on the robes, give away their families, careers, relationships and possessions in trade of three simple robes and a begging bowl. Why? Because they understand, at a very deep level, what it's all about, and it's all about letting go. This was what Christ was trying to teach us - letting go!

Letting go of everything is the true happiness. This is the basis of true generosity and loving you neighbor - which is a complete happiness that we, as human beings, can achieve because when we hold onto our material things, strong opinions, unyielding spiritual views and the super egos, we are always afraid that things will change. And in fact; everything does change. Material things come and go, our opinions will be challenged endlessly, our spiritual views will change as we mature, and our super egos will diminish as we age and experience the realities of life.

When we hold tight to these things, even such things as nationalism, politics, and religion, we become tight inside; our hearts become cramped, fearful of someone challenging us, another country, another religion, another political view or party.

And we become fearful, which leads to hatred and anger. We become uncertain because deep inside, beyond a conscious level, we really are uncertain about whether or not our opinions are true.

It's easy for us to give away things that we have no use for anymore, old clothes or old appliances, but not as easy with things that we still treasure.

Only when we no longer treasure the values of the Old Testament which bring us conflict, and discover the real meaning of the New testament, which brings peace, can we throw away those old values without a second thought.

If we can live a simple life, just enough to get by on, we will naturally begin to see the needs of others, and we will help them. And after we have enough money to live modestly, we begin to take care of the needs of others.

And as we relinquish all the stuff that we once thought made us happy but instead made us fearful, angry and hateful, we find ourselves slowly becoming really Christ-like in our actions and lifestyle. We become loving and generous instead of confrontational, striving and ambitious.

This is true generosity, where we follow our hearts and not our heads. This is the true happiness.

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The Less We Have, The Happier We Become

Posted Sunday, November 15, 2009 (5 days 16 hours ago.) Viewed 972 times.

Nancy Gibbs of TIME writes, . . . "we stopped buying all the stuff we didn't need that was supposed to make us happier, and we seem to be happier for it. And who would have expected that?"

Nancy's article explores why Americans are becoming cheerier even though they have lost economically, and the truth is; the less we have, the less we have to worry about, and the less we worry, the more time we have to see the beauty of trees, and the wonder of the universe and contemplate our part in it. Without possessions getting in our way, we become human beings again.

When we live in fear, which results from hanging on to our possessions, then anger and hatred results. Fear is a funny animal. We express it as anger and hatred because how else could we relieve ourselves of it? And we can't keep it bottled up, that would be too painful.

Having so much stuff led us into this fear mentality which was then capitalized on by the hate radio bunch and the fear mongers of the left and right in order to score political points . . . and for what? To get themselves more power, which in turn gets them more stuff, both materially and egotistically, which are both huge burdens!

Only when we are free of our stuff can we really see with insight how this all comes down. How childish is the quest for power, things and security. How self-defeating. So much effort is expended for literally nothing but illusions.

The residue of fear from the past 30 years is still keeping the fear mongers busy, but this will fade out in time. Their popularity will wane. The highly successful disaster and horror movies currently in vogue reflect the old days of fear and not the new reality of unattachment to stuff.

They will not be particularly remembered because they are from the past. It‘s the films which reflect real insight into future trends that make the lasting impression.

Keep an eye out for the movie that touches fledgling chords within our spirit, a spirit that is beginning to awaken to a new day when all that we fuss and argue about is seen for what it is; our fear of losing all that stuff which makes us unhappy anyway!

Look carefully at where your stress lies. If you are sensitive, you can feel it. You can feel the physical sensations of a mild adrenalin rush, an increased heartbeat, the subtle anger that creates an urge to strike back or a feeling that you must right a wrong. Or that you must change someone's mind.

This is all stressful. This causes an underlying unhappiness whether you "win" or "lose," because there is no winning or losing ultimately, only the happiness or fear that you feel in in this very moment.

Anytime that you rely of stuff, which means material stuff or psychological (spiritual) stuff, and once you dig your heels in with strong, unyielding opinions, you are guaranteed not to be happy even though you may talk yourself into thinking that you are.

Let go if you can, of as much as you can. That‘s where you will find peace; that‘s where you will find contentment; and that‘s where you will become a complete human being.

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Swine Flu - Just $ for Piggies?

Posted Thursday, November 12, 2009 (8 days 16 hours ago.) Viewed 30 times.

Reuters recently reported that "Accusations are flying in British and French media that the pandemic has been "hyped" by medical researchers to further their own cause, boost research grants and line the pockets of drug companies."

This brings up the question of money, and how far people might go to make it. Accusations are that the scientific community and big pharma are pushing the "horrific" dangers of swine flu to boost research funding and profits, because the facts are that swine flu, compared to regular seasonal flu, is a dud.

"While seasonal flu attacks about 20 percent of the population in an average year, experts estimate that even in Britain -- the worst-hit country in Europe so far -- fewer than 10 percent of people have had H1N1 swine flu."

I noticed that our media has also pushed the fear button on this with a constant drum beat of fear tactics and pressure on the population to "get that Swine Flu shot," while "Dangerous liaisons between certain experts, the labs and the government, the obscurity of the contracts between the state and the pharma firms have added to the doubt." Let's face it, someone had to insure the drug makers that a grand marketing scheme would ensue to guarantee no risk of them selling their drugs.

"British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is set to reap billions as fear of the swine flu pandemic grows. The world's second-largest drug company has secured orders from 16 countries for 195 million doses of the vaccine it is developing against the H1N1 virus" (BusinessWeek).

Meanwhile, "In Britain, health authorities' original worst-case scenario -- which said as many as 65,000 could die from H1N1 -- has twice been revised down and the prediction is now for around 1,000 deaths, way below the average annual toll of 4,000 to 8,000 deaths from seasonal winter flu."

Do you see the problem here? It's obvious that when you introduce a profit motive into health care, we all pay for someone else's Mercedes. Conversely, in China they have controlled the situation without a profit motive, and it has been a lot cleaner. "China's authoritarianism has apparently helped the country keep a lid on the global H1N1 pandemic. Similarly populated India has experienced nearly 17 times as many deaths from the disease. The United States, with less than a quarter of China's population, has recorded about 133 times as many deaths.

"That's obviously a comparison of three very different countries, but there should be no doubt after the SARS debacle that China is a densely populated hub of international travel perfectly capable of spreading disease. That Beijing has managed to keep things mostly under control suggests that its draconian measures-which have included the quarantine of thousands of visiting foreigners at the slightest provocation-are working. Another step that could help, as The New York Times reports, is the country's determination to develop a vaccine as quickly as possible. That and the educational and unintentionally humorous use of red banners. A red banner hanging from the balcony of a rural school building here in Guangdong Province says: "H1N1 flu is preventable, controllable and curable, and not terrifying.

"The government was so anxious to stay ahead of H1N1 that officials decided in June to start developing a vaccine even though testing kits for measuring the dosage of the agent in the experimental vaccines had not arrived from the W.H.O., said Zhao Kai, a virologist who advises the government. It was an unusual step, but on Sept. 5 China became the first country to declare that it had discovered a vaccine, and by late October it had produced nearly 53 million doses." (Truthdig)

The fact of the matter is that here in the United States, we no longer produce flu vaccines - because it is not profitable. We are at the mercy of foreign producers. To hell with our people - show me the money.

Highly regulated capitalism may have a place in society, but it is not a God. Capitalism and profits should not be allowed to come within light years of health care and related issues.

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Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up!

The Less We Have, The Happier We Become

Swine Flu - Just $ for Piggies?

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