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Responses to Sharing Belief
RECENT CREDOS RECEIVED (April, 2006) Michael Joseph Deal I believe that we all have a purpose in this life. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Terry Gene Riddle Believing the world is predetermined to happen from a to
z from the author of life, sending life forward exactly
as it is and will be perceived. Perhaps life from this form
comes directly from the imagination of God; coming; springing
into life "automatically; spontaneously.
What is the last anyone with an empiral foundation finds is that anothe'rs
opinion is merely the different or the same: never right or wrong but
merely another opinion. 2 cents is always merely 2 cents and the whole
population other than I will have an opinion other than mine and it's
still just my 2 cents and a different 2 cents. Michael Wieck 1. There is more than "this", and we are not
alone... Dee Troll 1. I truly hold to no absolute beliefs, I've gone thru
many stages and it's a feeling of constantly being elevated
and will continue as long as I live. As if graduating from
kindergarten to college and beyond. Old beliefs no longer
hold value and I see them as lovely childhood fairy tales.
(yet valuable to contain society as a whole) Yet not to
judge anyone elses beliefs, they are valid for 'them' and
I simply smile as each tries to convert me to 'their' religion.
(which by the way I have little use for any type of organized
religion & dogma.) Today I believe there 'may' be other
dimensions or worlds I know nothing of....or there may not
be. I do not concern myself with it and am of the opinion
I may or may not ever know so it's of no matter and try
to live in the 'now'. I definitely don't believe in a hell. Jesse Jones 1. This is a difficult question for me. My search for gnosis
is a search for grounding. I wish I could be more affirmative.
The best I can say is I was or am placed here, I think for
a reason, even if I am not sure what it is. I have doubts,
worries that I am some abortion or mistake of God, but something
in me says no, that's not right, I belong here. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Robert Meek 1. That there is, indeed, a God, be he/she a Divine Prsence,
a Cosmic Awareness, or whatever you want to call it, him,
her. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. that the earth is the fundamental ground of my being
and my soul and i take great confidence in my alligence
to her. Monte Below To sum up what I am beginning to realize is my truth which
is what I hope for all of life and consiencious* things.
Meek is thing opposite of weak and right makes might not
the other way around.I believe in a Good loving, merciful,patient,
understanding, always interested in how to better increase
not decrease the good reasons for being HERE, god. The sum
of all things is 1. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Katherine Russ Firstly, let me note that I primarily believe that for
all human beings, dogmatic thinking and dishonest behavioral
patterns are our number one downfall, bringing us into states
of mild to extreme delusion. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Soul Dancer What is the fundamental belief of your life,
the single belief that you hold with the most passion? I
believe I m called to be of service through the gifts (known
and unknown) unfolding with each breath I take. As I allow
my passions to dissolve into simple actions of unconditional
love, so to my ability to enjoy a path of grace, gratitude
and gentleness. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Heath Trial 1) That one man on the side of God is a majority. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Martin Swager Comments: 1) most passionate belief, I dont know, i dont like beliefs and consider them loaded, I do believe in acting with regard to others and limiting negative emotions and thoughts as regrds others, i also think (believe) that I aint very smart and maybe what i think isnt so but i do think we have a spirtual side - not think but know since i have had such experiences every night since i can remember we call them dreamnms, I really have no truck with the religions majority today except i have liked my buddhist readings and investigations and some other eastern stuff as all westerners do when they come across them having been shut off from our indoctrination into our standard beliefes. 2)think a God? I believe god is a swell fellow and as good as my dogs since they are spelled the same reversed. I think god is the essence of all and all that good shit, since everything is of god. god is in everything and to tell god what god is is utter nonsense so i tend to believe we can know some but not all till we become something else again,or not in this mind or maybe it isnt good to want to be god , I just think god is a topic best left to some one else.becuase what i think of what passes for god in common culture is what murdered and tortured people not so very long ago. 3) after death, i believe we move on, spirit leaves the body and goes to where it is likened to by what was its living definition (positive-negative forces) this life is to make yourself in line with the force you want and must strive to do in life being your choice, my choice is positive because being drawn to negative is spiritual death consummation with the negative feeders. 4)causes of violence are my own thoughts of revenge and exercising my dominate behaviour, also petty meanness and small-minded self-centered wants and needs. 5) love in humans. love is a much talked and debated thing, love is rare and it aint easy, to really exert the positive love to your fellows is hardest thing, how can i love the idiot neighbor who stole my stuff and pretended he was an innocent lamb i sued for nothing, this hurt because i made a curveball on his ass and he wants to act like a school boy at age 35? well it takes a detached and perspective that you need to have a perspective and it aint easy ... well dont say this to me and i told him he violated a trust and he comes back off the wall, so excluding thoughts of kicking his ass and stabbing him let along a bullet in his head are now left behind i hope but are not and still pop up, sio i cant be all that, plus i also think of the fight that could happen if he presses his idiocy on me and see both winning asnd losing but know how to proceed in any case now having learned more from this and what i learned is i aint as smart aa I think but some others are even more fucked up than I like to think. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------Benjamin Hunter I must believe that there must be a greater purpose to
existence than just being born, living and dieing on this
planet. Be it a belief in an all mighty Deity or what ever.
If there were not such a belief for me to hold on to, then
why be moral and suffer. If all we do is grow old and die
then why not take all we can from whoever we can anyway
we can.
PREVIOUSLY POSTED:
Joanna Harcourt Smith, visionary dissenter and
liaison-link for Metahistory.org.
Philip Baldwin, artist working in glass; designer-manager of Metahistory.org. 1. I hope that my answer to this question may be honestly expressed in the answer to number 5, but I am probably fantasizing way over my head. I do not know that for which I would be willing to die. I doubt that this can be known except on a case by case basis when confronted with a particular reality. The protecting of my children from harm? I hope so. My mother, my brother my loved ones? I hope so. The fellow human on the street, or in the subway.... maybe. But dying for ideas and causes? This strikes me as one of the more profound idiocies of humanity across "civilized" time, and a great source of our often idiotic trajectory. I can see that I too would be tempted to participate in exceptions, appropriately organized.... like maybe standing before a bulldozer as it’s cutting through the rain forest.... ah well! 2. I do not know what I believe about God per se, except it isn’t a him and it doesn’t live in the sky. That far I can get. Beyond that, I recognize, incoherently to be sure, some sort of "other" that is present and with which I mostly don’t know how to interact. But I am mindful of this "other" and believe that I spend a fair bit of time reflecting upon it and trying to get a grip on it. My views about it evolve and change in hue with the passing years, and my own evolution and learning in life. If you force me into a corner, I guess I'd say, See my answer to number 5 below. 3. Maybe, maybe not. It’s possible there are several alternatives, in parallel existence, and no one right answer, even including the contradictions: there is no life after death, and there is life after death. Maybe it’s a choice. I just don't know. Rare is the person who does, and when he or she does I marvel at their certitude. But the circumstantial evidence through the ages that there are possibilities beyond that inscrutable threshold are noteworthy. 4. I am smack in the middle of a huge education on this subject. It’s called metahistory, and a big part of its reason for being is to get a grip, and to assist diminishing, this incredibly pervasive phenomenon we call violence among the human species, unique to the living world. So my beliefs here too are in constant evolution. But a few hunches are emerging: Organized rational agriculture may have set us on the march (preceded by the desertification of the cradle of civilization), Patriarchy has got to be a huge contributor, with the terrible loss of balance and the loss of the role of the feminine in society; the rationalization and stratification of society, following in the wake of agriculture, into the haves and have nots, and the attendant sexual taboos stuffed down everyone’s throats. A pretty good mix for massive frustration, at the least.! There’s lots more, and I am learning day by day. But this is a start. For example I only really figured out just yesterday, thanks to a superb teacher, that the dissappearance of the shaman from society took away our natural interface with the "other" (as in No. 2 above), our ability to communicate, through the shaman with the other, and to thus safeguard a healthy relationship with the "world" or the "cosmos" in which we reside. Violence is one of the best indicators we’ve got to our global malaise as a species, and I definitely do not believe " ‘twas ever thus." Plenty of evidence says not so! We’ve the right, even the duty, to find the way out of this malaise. 5. Love is the be all and end all of the whole game. At the end of the day, I suspect that’s all there is. John Lash, co-originator and principal author of Metahistory.org. 1. Like the Kalahari Bushmen of South Africa (who, as I write these words, are drifting into extinction, helped by a nudge from the marketing staff of Western civilization), I believe "there is a dream dreaming us." And like Hindu Tantrikas who adore the dreaming god, Vishnu, I believe that matter and consciousness are co-eternal in the Dreaming, a timeless Mystery. I believe that the Mystery does not evolve but continually becomes different through rapport, the interplay of dreaming entities, macrocosmic and microcosmic. Based on my personal explorations of the Mystery I believe: That the attention of the macrocosmic dreamers (call them Gods if you will, but I prefer to call them Divinities) is engaged by the story of events rather than by events themselves. We are all deeply implicated in the discovery of how the Mystery of Dreaming works, but conscious involvement is purely optional. The universe is emanated rather than created, and so there are no ultimate laws of creation, only patterns of play and replay, and these patterns are carried in spore-loaded, genetically encoded memory-threads that weave into a vast sentient membrane resonating with stories. The living tissue of the universe is a narrative structure and we humans, as well as all other sentient beings, access the story-lines through language formats, descriptive codes, while inorganic beings provide the formal organization of the codes. Some descriptions lead into the heart of the Dreaming, others lead to nonsense and fixation and worse. I believe that it is possible to engage the attention of the macrocosmic dreamers in the same way that we engage each other’s attention: by offering descriptions (in word or gesture) that appeal to them. The trick is, knowing what appeals to them. I believe this is also how one communicates with Gaia whom I believe (following Gnostic clues) to be the sole resident macrocosmic divinity of the earth. In my complex of beliefs the one element for which I would be willing to die is the belief that Gaia’s Dreaming is superior to human values and although the natural world cannot be destroyed by humans, as we arrogantly suppose, it is honorable to defend Gaia against human depredations. Michael Weiss, respondent. 1. Enjoy your life to the utmost, while "doing onto others, as you would have them do unto you." 2. I do not believe in "God" as an active, participating element in my life or those before me. 3. I do not believe in any life after death. 4. Violence in the world is caused by the imperfection of human beings. The world will never be a perfect place or a peaceful place. Hopefully, people more in control of themselves and their more base instincts will continue to hold sway over those of us not in control of those instints. 5.Love, both giving and getting is of tremendous value in helping our "better" instincts dominate our actions, and secondarily assisting us in the pursuit of a peaceful stay on earth. Cathy Cochran, respondent, charter member, Marion Foundation Over the years I am sure I have absorbed many ethical and moral values from assorted teachings and general knocking round the zoo. On a simple level I can distinguish good from bad if not always right from wrong. I try to live honestly, spontaneously, kindly and truthfully and truthfully I am struggling with this question. There is no fundamental belief by which I run my show, in fact there is reason to believe that the show runs me. It’s like acting in a play without a script or for that matter any known plot, except that at some point the curtain comes down. I don’t even know if it is just the end of Act I, which brings us to question 3. We’re skipping God (We all know he’s an old man with a big grey beard) Thomas Jefferson said in a letter to John Adams when they were both getting on, "If there is no life after death, at least we won’t be there to be disappointed." What a reassuring statement should it be "lights out." I suspect strongly that there is a life after death, but not because I have read it somewhere or been told. Generally the writer or speaker has to spoil it by telling you what that life is going to entail and how to avoid the nasty version. Personally I like to think that this fundamental mystery has not been solved and cannot be solved. I don’t think we have the tools. Hints are given along the path, revelatory moments occur in altered states (meditation and medication) that would indicate the presence of something, but for me once translated into words, the entire LAD question collapses into pure gobbledegook. Not knowing is not a happy condition for the human being when indeed it should be a reason to celebrate the one thing we have in common. Violence. It’s an unfortunate but undeniable fact that most of world violence is perpetrated by men and yet they seem to run everything. So that might be the answer right there. My opinion of course. Let’s try Desire to Aquire and Fear. I have put desire first because it is the fuse that so often sets off the dynamite. Desire for power, the neighbour’s spouse, a fix, territory, massive wealth, compliance to one’s beliefs etc., etc. Closely related is Fear, certainly the result of active acquisitive desire. Why these two non-productive characteristics are so prevalent in the human being beats me. Last but not least: Love Love is a positive emotion and as such is healthy. Sadly it cannot be bought in a shop. Unlike hate which seems readily available in all sorts of twisted forms very often affecting huge clusters of people at once, honest and deep love is something individual and personal. It can extend far and wide in the individual, encompassing all of nature in all its forms. It may be the single greatest asset in life’s experience. Anyone say that before??? I’ve really enjoyed doing this in a "me me" way. Harold Talbott, founding director, Buddhayana Foundation; Tibetan scholar 1. I believe that all sentient beings have the Buddha nature, but that it is obscured in us by countless lifetimes in which we have become habituated to negative emotions such as anger, desire and pride. Through the practice of virtues, the development of compassion, cutting through attachment to self, it is possible to purify the negative emotions. And the practice of meditation can lead to the overcoming of the subject-object duality, which is the basis of ignorance of the true nature of things, from which all the trouble comes. Our mind has caused the problem and our mind can attain liberation. For the practice of meditation it is important to have a teacher. There are enlightened beings whose compassionate power can heal, and help people to overcome some of the effects of bad karma. 2. I believe that in addition to relative truth, that is, everything that can be apparent to the senses, there is absolute truth, which is inexpressible, to which no qualities can be imputed, and which is free from conceptualization. The enlightened mind possesses the wisdom to discern absolute truth. In fact the empty nature of beings and phenomena is the absolute truth, and that emptiness is the basis of Buddhahood. 3. I believe that consciousness survives death, to take birth again in the case of ordinary beings such as ourselves, until the attainment of enlightenment. However, a sublime being who possesses Buddhahood is free, since the karma which compels rebirth and determines its conditions has become exhausted, to take rebirth in order to free sentient beings from suffering and lead them to enlightenment if he or she wishes to. 4. Violence is the extreme expression of anger, which arises, like the other negative emotions, from attachment to self. It is the most harmful expression of ignorance of the true nature of beings and phenomena, and of all misdeeds it has the most severe effect on the karma of the one who commits the violent action. 5. Love is a natural expression of the mind, but it can be vitiated by self-attachment, causing fear and an incapacity to love. Keen awareness of the faults of others, having an unforgiving or rigid nature, and pride all make it hard to love. And it is easier to be loving if one is playful and has a sense of humor. All beings want happiness, and certainly all humans want love. When it comes your way it can astonish, simply dispelling pain and self-doubt in an instant of recognition. Think what the love of a Bodhisattva can do, or for a Christian, faith in the love of Jesus Christ. Michael Baldwin, co-founder of The Marion Foundation 1. I believe in Karma, the law of cause and effect, so I have a hunch that every incarnation is related to learning, growing. In other words an opportunity. It's not about seeking happiness, although I would suggest that one goal might be to have JOY bubble up somehow, hither and yon. Life is a challenge to further personal growth, understand better the nature of reality, and of course KINDNESS, or compassion, is the critical element. I am not sure I would be willing to die for anything, but that's a heavy duty question that needs more thought. It seems to me there are two types: those who see the all-pervasiveness of suffering and fall on their swords with lots of woe is me and whining and self- pity; and those who see the suffering and are challenged by it, who retain a sense of humor and despite the travail, continue in a positive, hopeful way. I like to think I am in the latter camp. So, best is to challenge yourself to understand, to learn, and that requires a proper balance of doing and being. 2. "God" or enlightenment is something within, not without, although there is a "force" at work in the universe of great intelligence and subtlety and it pervades Nature. We could find that God within a lot faster if we could but reconnect with Nature, re-attach to that sense of oneness with Nature, from which we are so divorced and disconnected. 3. Love should be the glue that holds things together, but, alas, struggles so to be manifest in a much larger way. I feel sure it is lurking in everyone, but it is simply tough for it to dominate because of hurt, fear, insecurity, and a whole host of other debilitating factors. 4. Violence. Oooooo, that's major. Probably a lot of things go towards generating violence, especially the way it seems to increasingly dominate our cultures worldwide, in many manifestations beyond the obvious. I suspect it is rooted in the dominance of patriarchy, with its attendant linearity, left brain focus, desperately lacking the balance that comes with the feminine, with its attendant intuition and creativity. Such imbalance between, and within, the genders is, I suspect, the worst problem for generating violence. Another is the disappearance over these past 2000 years of the esoteric traditions, with a dominant focus on exotericised monotheism. But I am sure there is more, which Metahistory will get into. 5. I believe your consciousness survives the shedding of your body and you continue to grow and evolve. I also believe there is ultimately no place for FEAR, which is such a dominant emotion, and I believe death is bliss. Claude Pepin, associate of The Marion Foundation 1. That there is a Consciousness/Spirit/Energy Frequencies which we have little clue of, and of which we are a part and often apart. What to die for becomes known in connection with this Spirit. 2. Having experienced near death God has something to do what is described in #1. 3. You shift consciousness and energy frequency. 4. Mistrust, fear, and attachment to worldly things. Trust = Peace 5. Unattached Love is a lighthouse in the human experience. Anonymous (August 2003) Comments - I learned about your site from an acquaintance of very short duration. When she started to discuss your philosophy, I thought I had been transported back to the 60s and 70s, the era of free sex, drugs a plenty, social unrest, etc. Although a friend of mine once said to me "If you remember the 60s, you missed them", I most vividly recall the myriad of counter-culture, neo-religious, "far out" spiritual groups, like, with no disrespect intended, yours. It was especially us youngsters of 15-25 who cracked under the pressure of trying to stay alive and find a course that suited us, frequently involving resisting or rejecting what we were told and told to do. 1. Having never used illicit drugs (not even a la Bill Clinton) and having been reared in a non-religious surrounding, I nevertheless have decided that I like the idea of the Golden Rule. To die for? Counter-productive (See #3) 2. There is/are no god(s) by just about every definition I can think of. Can I sustantiate that statement? No, anymore than the existence of "god" can be. 3. Since there is no life after death, I can think of no moral creed which is worth my death. Would I RISK my life, that is to say something less than certainly that I would die, for something? Yes, but probably limited to something that I cherish such as family, or, in a given circumstance for a small rabbit trapped in the center island of the freeway. In my opinion, the human organism, like that of most of the REST of the animal kingdom, is pre-programmed to stay alive, death coming inevitably but not willingly. 4. Fundamentally, too many humans trying to stay alive. Although history is not without examples of horrific conflict, the level and frequence seem to have increased with the increase in the population. I grew up in Alaska, where, at the time, there were fewer than 250,000 people in an area twice that of Texas or the same as France. Fewer opportunities to fight fewer fights, and a real sense that "I have to be nice to X because some day my well-being may depend on him/her." Largely a relic of the past. 5. Absolutely essential, whatever your definition. Elaine. I am a Consultant in Energetic Transformation. 1. The fundamental belief, by which I live my life, has to do with Energetics. I believe that the intangible energy of each being, each place, each interaction, each object etc. on the planet is as real and as important as the physical tangible things that we, physical humans tend to focus on. These energetics effect everything we do, feel, sense etc.; we have just become dulled to this unseen force and pay it little heed. I believe that it is crucial that we each begin to open our consciousness to this level of reality for it is effecting us and we are effecting it at every moment. My life and my work focus on this "energy." I work with others to assist them to open to this level of reality. I also use my body as an instrument of "energetic transformation" or a vehicle to clear, balance, harmonize and lift the energies of those people and places around me. I believe that I am a bridge between the unseen energies of the higher dimensions and the seen energies of the 3rd dimensional plane. I also believe that I gather, integrate and emanate the energies of the fourth dimension that are housed in me to all with whom I come in contact. This is my work. It is what I do in my life. I consider it a contract between myself and Spirit and I do it joyfully and with great commitment. 2. My belief in God is: there is a creative force that created life in the beginning and continues to exist, effecting life on all planes and in all dimensions. One might call that force, God. That is fine with me. I believe that that creative force is assisted by beings at higher dimensions, who do not live in a pphysical reality, but do interact with and assist those of us who do live in the physical world. I believe in the power of prayer to "God" or to those Guides, Teachers, Helpers who work with the human race to assist us to move past the challenges of this human world to a more equitable, more balanced, less polarized, more love filled reality. 3. I believe that the causes of violence as well, by the way, as the causes of dis-ease, climate change, drought, famine etc. are imbalance. We each have violent tendencies within us. Some of us are able to keep them in check; in others, things are way out of balance and greed and power have taken over a true understanding of what is required to live well and in peace on the planet. And, I believe that violence has been in our faces historically and is now in order to offer us an opportunity to recreate "balance", to move from a polarized reality to one in which there is wholeness, oneness and harmony. In other dimensions, I believe there is no polarity. It is only here on Earth in this third dimension, that such polarity and such violence exist. Humans, it seems are slow learners. We have been dealing with violence for eons... And, yes, there have been tales of violence on other planets, wars between galaxies etc. Where this exists, when and if it does, or did, it exists in a 3 dimensional form. Once one moves to the energetic state, there is no polarity, no violence... only oneness! 4. The role of love in human experience is essential to move us from the polarized, oppositional state in which most humans live, to a higher level of being. It is love that will move each human to the next level of consciousness, the next level of awareness, the next level of energetic beingness, but love alone will not solve the problems of planet Earth and the Human race. Love must be joined by an openness to the larger picture of reality in which there is no separation between the physical and the nonphysical realms. Love is a wonderful motivating force and we must open our hearts to embrace a caring for all. And, we must go further to recognize the realm beyond three dimensional spirituality to the recognition of energetic oneness in all dimensions. Monica Guggisberg 1. I don’t have a fundamental belief in my life. That fills me with a sense of loss. It’s not meant to be this way. As close as I have gotten: Try to live my life in it's full meaning and scope. True to it’s own nature. Trying to connect. C o n n e c t With being, mistery, our world, nature and universe. I would die for my children. My role as a facilitator for them is the most honourable part I play in my life. Can you die for anything else then your own life? Your life has to be worth dying for, because that’s the only death we own. So I keep looking... 2. "It is not bearded and sitting on a cloud." Something bigger than us, that we are part of. All. For me it’s not an "other," it’s inclusive. We are an element of the larger. I long to feel part of the grander picture, but we have completely lost connection and access to it. Have cluttered and paved the world with so many innate things that the soul of Gaia is hardly felt anymore. The sounds are muzzled by artificial noises. We have gone astray. Has Gaia started hiding, to protect herself, or? So we follow promises, prophecies, artificial dreams, fanatically clinging to them, so afraid of loosing them that we have become blind (followers). 3. What do you believe about life after death? Our present life is a part of a longer journey, the tiniest particle of a much larger painting. I am convinced that there is more to life than birth, death and what lies in between. Some people are able to bridge the boundaries and access some of the larger parts of the painting even during this life. Others wait for death and even then might not succed. Live and see. Maybe. I like to be curious.... 4. Fear. Fear of loss of "possession". Possession has many faces : Power. Control. Love. People. Land. Money. Food. Freedom.....to name a few. Possession and obssession. Lost skills of communication. Non-verbal language is on the brink of extinction, has turned loud and mostly violent. An incapacity of connecting and honoring the world we share and life in. We are sucking soul and life out of our "Loved possessions." We turn to violence for a lack of a better tool of expression. Men more so. Women have more ways for expressing themselves and share it with others. Men tend to favour big words and violence. There is a telling expression in German : "Ohnmacht". (It can mean to faint, being out of command or power, stalled, helpless, incapacitated, it makes you spechless.....) That’s where we stand today, it is a dangerous place as it promotes insane re - actions. Or we try to wake up. 5. Fundamental. Nourishement for soul and body. We can’t possess love. Celebration of Life and God. The celebration is well worth the occasional hangover. Rose Baldwin, retired schoolteacher and grandmother 1. I base my daily life on selflessness. I enjoy doing for my family and others. (Truly I don’t operate for being thanked or praised.) I love/like most people. I luxuriate in the beauty of nature. I would be willing to die to save my child or grandchild or possibly a sibling. I would not be willing to die for any cause or for my country. I am too happy and too satisfied with life to contemplate self-sacrifice. 2. I have absolutely no doubt that there is a God, the creator of this universe, its people, nature, animals, etc. One has only to look at a newborn baby, the intricacy of plants, the myriad insects, etc. and not be mystified and overcome as to how they originated were it not for a creator. All this could not fall into place by happenstance. There has to e some purpose for this vastly intricate setup. His creator is to be respected and revered. 3. Life after death is a mystery to me. Heaven as described by the Anglican Church is nonsense. I believe I have a soul. This soul may be implanted in another being, or as another species, in some other universe to begin again. I am sure somewhere and sometime we will be judged by how we led our lives here. I am scared by that, for I have made innumerable mistakes and left much undone. 4. The causes of violence stem from the fact that homo sapiens is basically selfish and greedy. Human nature is on the whole rotten. This world is not fair. People are not born equally. Born into poverty is far more the rule than otherwise. To get what one wants, or thinks one desires, requires fighting for it, in most cases; hence, violence. 5. If you truly believe in the Golden Rule your human experience has to be good. Living by the GR is too hard for most of us. Love, compassion, sympathy, kindness, generosity contribute to a rich experience, love being the most important. Richmond Mayo-Smith First I wish to comment on your definition of credo. I was much moved by a study of this word made by a retired protestant minister. He discovered that its original meaning was "to give one’s heart to" and only fairly recently has the meaning shifted to its present emphasis on belief. For me it illustrates the shift we have made from heart to head in our history. So I prefer to entertain your first question as "To what belief do I give my heart?" 1. The ultimate source of all is the Absolute Mystery, utterly unknowable. Therefore I give my heart to efforts to enrich our awareness of the intensity, beauty and wonder of the Mystery and to the miracle of living and am disheartened by efforts to restrict this awareness. 2. I believe in a conscious, intelligent universe. Recently I read an unpublished essay by David Korten in which he writes about our old story being a dead universe story and the possibility of a new story emerging - a living universe story in which the universe "is a great intelligence seeking to know itself through an unfolding journey toward ever greater complexity and potential." (I like Jerry Wennstrom’s statement that ’beauty is the barometer for right action.’ I think the living universe story is beautiful whereas for me the dead universe story is not.) 3. I believe in life after death. I believe there are disembodied spirits as well as embodied ones. 4. We are living the wrong worldview. One’s worldview answers two questions: "What do you believe is real?" and "How do you know what you believe you know?" We have been living a worldview which has overemphasized material reality, thinking as a way of knowing, solving problems by analyzing parts rather than beginning with the perspective of the whole. In brief, we have stressed our separateness from each other and the natural world, have removed divinity from the world around us and in our state of disconnected awareness have unleashed great violence in the world. 5. I define love as an experience of profound interconnection with another being, embodied or disembodied. No possibility is ruled out in my mind and heart for engaging in this interconnection with me. It is the ultimate human experience and it is part of our tragedy that we have so lost this realization and become absorbed in chasing other goals. I take issue with the phrase "pursuit of happiness." We chase after happiness, losing sight of the simple truth that chasing is not necessary. Happiness is waiting to be experienced all around us. Bokara Legendre My fundamental belief about life is that we are all a part of nature which is the manifestation of God on this plane. Therefore we are all one and everything that happens to any part of nature happens to us. By nature I include the whole cosmos and all that "Is". Dying for it isn’t really the point, it is just true for me, I am not out to convert anyone. "God" is the great spirit, the creative source, the great Mystery and is seen by many different traditions in various manifestations , which in my opinion are in the end just manifestations of the same great Mystery. The "All" is like an ocean, and we are a drop of water in that ocean that is individuated and then returnes to the whole possibly to be individuated again. Like a candle which burns -- the flame transferred to other candle -- is it the same flame on a different vehicle or does the vehicle define the flame? Another great mystery. There is yin and yang. Where there is darkness there is light and visa versa. I do however believe that as the wheel of time turns "we" may become more enlightened and violence decrease, but I can’t imagine that the shadow would cease to exist. If the world is God’s manifestation, the great spirit is interested perhaps in trying all possiblilities. WE are always trying to move toward love. When we die we are finally taken into love and truly live in love. Endlessly in this reality we are trying to find it and create it again as best we can, although we often fail. Margie Baldwin 1. I am not sure that I have one fundamental belief -- certainly not one that I would be willing to die for. I have come to believe that each one of us is here on earth in this lifetime (I believe we have many) with a purpose -- something we are supposed to learn about ourselves, our spirit, our humanity. That by exploring our human condition, we can learn about both our inner and outer world. 2. I believe there is a God within us all which reflects the God without. There is some sort of divine spirit which guides us -- karma has a part, but not entirely. I prefer the word spirit which has many capacities, love, compassion, empathy, joy, wonder and mystery. 3. I am not sure about life after death, certainly not life as we know it here on Earth. That spirit remains after the body goes is something I subscribe to. Actual visits to living beings is not something I quite believe, but rather a sense of that person and their participation in the spirit realm I like to believe in. 4. I think that much of the violence in the world comes from fear and ignorance. Thinking other people and cultures are inferior, hating for no real reason, letting anger take over, judging others, are all contributing factors. Not to mention population, environmental degradation, lack of basic necessities of food, water and space are all increasingly contributing to violence in the world. 5. Love, or rather unconditional love, is what all humans crave. To feel love is to feel full, complete and connected. It is the feeling of disconnect that also contributes to violence. No sense of community, or that the other person is just like you, can lead to isolation and fear and violence. If you feel loved and connected to the other, you can’t do them harm. And if we die with love, then there is no fear of death. 1. The fundamental belief of my life is that humans should have freedom to create/define themselves, investigate their environment without obstacle, and respond to whatever souls connect with them. 2. I don't like either the capital letters or the ominious three-letter monosyllable. I believe the root of our creation is beyond our ken (for the better), and that no force governs our progress other than our singular and combined selves.
1. Free will is inviolate. 2. God cannot be defined. 3. There is no death, only life. 4. We are the enemy, and at the cause of all violence. 5. Only love can set us free. Mary Lorraine Talley 2. If there are no separations, the next logical step is that thou art god. God is all that is, god is enegy/love/the universe. 3. I'm not sure what to expect after death. I'm pretty sure "I" will still exist, but I'm not sure if that "I" will be the same entity that I am before death. So much of what we call our personality is based on things like emotion,and linear thought; I think those things will be unnecessary in a non-material world. I tend to think of my mind as myself, but I begin to believe that my mind is nothing more that an interface between my spirit and the material world, so will my mind be superfluous as well? What I feel sure of is that it will be a happier place than here. 4. I believe that all violence, all negative emotion, and all breakdowns of ethics are based on fear, and that all fear is based on lies. 5. I believe that love is behind every action taken, either overtly, or
covertly. When love is buried under fear, you see actions taken
that are
truly a perverted attempt to regain love. The culture we have built
sacralizes suffering, and demonizes pleasure; how can we possibly
be
expected to find loving ways to act when our parents, teachers,
leaders,
and pastors don't themsleves believe in the existence of a loving
universe? This world will not change until people vounteer to put
down
their weapons, and embrace each other. When I say weapons, I include
here
not just guns and knives, but hateful words, negligence, and Mary 1. Everything is connected and not static but ever changing/evolving 2. There is I believe a source of all material in the universe. That it is there regardless of what we name it. 3. When the body no longer functions I think there is an essence or energy 4. The cause of violence and other non nourishing behaviour is the seeking to satiate, the longing to be whole. We mistakenly want to attain what we imagine will make us happy/balanced and the error is to hang that hope on changing environment ouside ourselves. The violence is an extreme extension of the behaviour which has it's roots in "I want". 5. The term love is a word with too many connotations. I believe another Noel Hale 2) We conceive of the facility to define everything aqnd everyone and to make this defined state exist 'in reality'; we suppose awareness of this power and knowledge and we suppose that This is or has feeling for us similar to, but infinitely greater than those we feel for a mother, baby, lover, friend or teacher. THIS is not separate or separable from what we call 'our' consciousness. We can open our awareness toward THIS by means found in all spiritual traditions. Most schools include breath awareness and THIS might be termed the BREATH IN ALL THINGS STATES AND PLACES. 3) Bodies eventially stop breathing but awareness of THIS does not stop. To the contrary, after death and the living over identification with a piece of flesh and its control awareness of the flow of love that is THE INFINITE BREATH is possible. 4) Violence results from fear, fear results from over identification with 5)I find it meaningful to equate LOVE and THIS. |
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Metahistory Quest Copyright 2002 - 2008 The Marion Institute. |
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