Religions > Atheism > My luck is fine Sasha, for I base my life on truth and not on gambling and least of all the approval of anyone else.
| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"V" |
| Date: |
01 Aug 2007 06:42:47 PM |
| Object: |
My luck is fine Sasha, for I base my life on truth and not on gambling and least of all the approval of anyone else. |
Click here: You say I am vindictive Neil?...No, I am tough and
fair...but not vindictive. - alt.atheism | Google Groups
On Jul 12, 11:07 am, Sasha <scir...@gmail.com> wrote:
On Jul 12, 12:07 am, V <v...@aol.com> wrote:
The Good Book??
Well, the good book is not always good in its advice.
But, neither is the good book always bad. (as the atheists like to
portray.)
Even fortune cookies get it right once in a while.
Better luck next time, tons-of-fun.
*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********
V:
My luck is fine Sasha, for I base my life on truth and not on gambling
and least of all the approval of anyone else.
If I was not truth based the atheist could refute me easily.
Since they are not able to refute me, all they can do is plonk me.
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.atheism/browse_frm/thread/cc340579e952678b/6f3ad57c8a43a18f?hl=en#6f3ad57c8a43a18f
So, if luck is needed, offer it to my atheist friends, as they need it
more than myself.
Those are the facts Sasha, the truth stands on it's own and does not
depend on luck or Sasha's approval of it.
You will find tools for inner peace in the imperfect bible, just as
you will in fortune cookies. (I am talking about the wisdom type of
cookie not the palm reading versions.)
No such thing as perfection when it comes to humans Sasha.
I find it is good to 'look for direction and forget perfection' if we
wish to be at peace with this subject.
Perfection is a journey I take and direction I head in - but I never
arrive at in life.
Perfection is the nature of gods.
Imperfection is the nature of humans.
We can see this with logic.
What is logical is not always practical when it comes to humans...is
it?
Just look at atheists delusions of being 'perfectly logical' in their
minds
Yet their perfectly logical minds yields sickness in body, mind and
spirit?
Despite this fact, we can all do better if we try at perfecting inner
peace within and with all Sasha.
I look towards my direction...am I improving...getting worse...or
frozen?
If you do not like the Good Book, fortune cookies offer much wisdom as
well Sasha.
Some examples?
'A diamond cannot polished without friction'. (which applies to all of
you as you work you way out of the mind manacled trap you are caught
in)
and
'Surface appearance is not reliable.' (useful advice for all the
atheists that suffer from an insobriety of opinion due to hatred and
ill will...test before you hate...and realize that as you hate your
destroy your peace...are your reading this Neil?)
I was at a religious discussion where the group was composed of a wide
spectrum of believers and non believers.
One atheist said he ran his life by the golden rule.
Another person piped up that the golden rule came from the bible,
which made the atheist wince.
The atheist seemed to take pride in his self sufficiency and did not
like to run his life by anything that came out of the bible.
When it came up that the concept of golden rule might be from an
earlier source than the bible, the atheist was relieved.
This was a good reminder to me to examine where my guiding light
resides?
Is it ego based or truth based?
When the guiding light of this atheist was not grounded in the bible
he was happy. But when it came from an area that he did not like, he
was upset. How can the same material be used to build a palace by one
man, yet only build a hovel for another?
By one spiritual practitioner seeing truth and applying it to live a
life at peace. And the other person only seeing prejudice and problems
and doing nothing.
Every religion was made by man and as such every religion is imperfect
as it is run by man.
Despite these imperfections, each religion also has many
"perfection's" within it as well.
We can still be open to peace generating tools from any of the
religions and spiritual traditions that are available to us if we are
serious about being at peace.
This requires us to run our life by truth and not by prejudice.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said: "Therefore, whatever you want
men to do to you, do also to them" (Matthew 7:12). Nowadays this verse
is commonly referred to as "The Golden Rule," and is more commonly
quoted as: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Here
are some of the earliest sources for this concept of reciprocity
~1970-1640 BCE "Do for one who may do for you, / That you may cause
him thus to do." - The Tale of the Eloquent Peasant 109-110, Ancient
Egypt, tr. R.B. Parkinson.
* ~700 BCE "That nature only is good when it shall not do unto another
whatever is not good for its own self." - Dadistan-i-Dinik 94:5,
Zoroastrianism.
* ? BCE "Whatever is disagreeable to yourself do not do unto others."
- Shayast-na-Shayast 13:29, Zoroastrianism.
* ~550 BCE "You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against your
countrymen. Love your fellow as yourself: I am the LORD." - Tanakh,
new JPS translation, Leviticus 19:18, Judaism.
* ~500 BCE "Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find
hurtful." - Udana-Varga 5:18, Buddhism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethic_of_reciprocity
Now, whether you believe in God or believe in Jesus or are an atheist
or Buddhist does this wisdom not apply to you? This truth is universal
in nature as it is based not on being of a certain religion, other
than that of the religion of humanity.
In this case, you can adopt a peace generating tool and apply it to
your life irrespective of your religious beliefs or lack thereof. I
had to chuckle one time when an atheists argued that the golden rule
is not perfect, so he said he does not follow it. When I questioned
him about what he does follow as well as the state of perfection that
applied to his life, all he could do was reply with ad hominem
attacks.
If we are waiting for perfection when it comes to spiritual studies we
will always be disappointed. Before applying perfection to anything
outside of us, we should examine the perfection within us. The nature
of humans is that of imperfection, so we must always look towards
direction and forget perfection.
I heard a story one time in a Yoga lecture that illustrates this
point. "Range is of the ego - Form is of the soul." The only thing we
need to be concerned with is how is our form when it comes to our
spiritual practice and our life.
Regarding the golden rule? It is more perfect than imperfect, so it is
a most useful tool to live a life at peace by. And when we combine it
with other tools such as universality, natural law, contrast the
greater good with the greater right, etc the synergistic effect is
close to perfection as humans can get with this subject. But it takes
some thinking and one will not see it without an open mind.
Wisdom for living a life at peace is all around us for the taking. But
many of us get blinded with labels and personal prejudices. Whenever
we take it upon ourselves to beat down, we are headed in a direction
of destroying peace. We destroy our own peace as well as others
peace.
As such, I practice from many religious and spiritual traditions
without problems or prejudices and readily look for such gifts
irrespective of what label they come under - on the contrary I am most
grateful wherever I find them. If I am not able to use a concept, I
leave it alone, but do not spend my time or energies to beat others
down. Do we like to be beaten down?
I saw some paintings in a Japanese museum that showed a cousin of the
Buddha being of great power and to show his strength he went up to a
baby elephant and pushed it down to the ground. A second painting
showed the Buddha helping this baby elephant back up to his feet and
the Buddha lifted the elephant high up over his head and said, "It is
much better to uplift - than to tear down."
Whether this is a true story or not I do not know. But we can all
benefit from uplifting rather than destroying.
I see this predisposition to destruction many times in responses I
receive from my posts.
The critiques offer much in the line of 'no goods' but they seldom do
they offer any substantive tools to finding peace.
Maybe I do not have it '100% right' but I have it 'right enough' to be
able to be at peace if I apply these principles. If I waited for
perfection, I would never act. I use the tools at hand.
Aristotle ~ "It is the mark of an educated mind to rest satisfied with
the degree of precision which the nature of the subject admits and not
to seek exactness where only an approximation is possible."
This being able to 'rest satisfied' is something the perfectionists
lack and why they will never be at peace until they stop collecting
concepts and start using the concepts of peace generations.
The atheist I mentioned above demonstrated this with his blanket
dismissal of the golden rule since it is not 100% perfect.
He could offer no substitutes for the golden rule, all he could do was
succumb to personal attacks on me.
We can examine our writing to see what useful tools for finding peace
we offer to others it also says a lot about our own practice of
generating inner peace.
When you practice peace promotion with others you will reap inner
peace promotion. When you practice destroying others peace, you will
reap self destruction of inner peace.
Take care,
V (Male)
Agnostic Freethinker
Practical Philosopher
AA#2
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| User: "Sanitys Little Helper" |
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| Title: Re: My luck is fine Sasha, for I base my life on truth and not on gambling and least of all the approval of anyone else. |
02 Aug 2007 05:48:57 AM |
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V <vfr44@aol.com> wrote in
news:1186011767.419859.80630@j4g2000prf.googlegroups.com to alt.atheism:
Click here:
HO! <whack!>
--
David Silverman F.L.A.H.N.
aa #2208
"If you are informed by God, you can be misinformed by nobody" - Osama Bin
Laden
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