So, the question is are we "as figments" or are we literally figments (creations/fantasies) of our own imagination, our own thoughts? And then, of course, we must ask, "How much of what we perceive as 'our own imagination' or 'our own thoughts' is actually 'ours' rather than our parents', our society's, and/or our culture's?" There is that old bumpersticker, "Don't believe everything you think," that pertinent to our belief that we do in fact possess a viable grasp of reality; enough that we are able to cope somehow with the contingencies of being in the world. There is no comprehension that "we" have created a relative world in which there is a reasonably acceptable level of absurdity and insanity; reasonable only if you are of the predominating race and economic group, and are also able to accept the groupthink that "all is well and proper enough," which reminds me of another favorite bumpersticker, a product of Zippy the Pinhead: "Are we having fun yet?" Another of his: "All life is a blur of Republicans and meat." However, the goodness of God yet exists in the heart of all avowed fearmongers and churchmongers. How wonderfully clearly Donald Trump reveals to the world images of the Heart of Evil. Is not such revelation a service to the world? If Americans choose such a path for themselves, is it not revelatory of their own "Chosen" souls? Even as it was for the Germans less than a hundred years ago?
And so we so easily fall victim to ourselves, to our own beliefs and mindsets, be they traditional or innovative. Regardless of rightness or wrongness, logic or lack of logic, hatred begets hatred and violence begets violence. The American people so easily and readily dismiss Marianne Williamson's, which also was once Dennis Kucinich's notion of a Department of Peace. How dare we even consider the notion of Peace, much less passionately waging it. Who would benefit? What munitions factories would save us from Depression if we had "only" peace? "Imagine all the people...".
In other words, we create the world we imagine. If we ascribe ourselves to be "made in the image of God," is such a god a Smiter, a Destroyer of his children in true Gnostic, Manichean, Augustinian, Calvinist fashion? Or perhaps Hellenistic unifying, loving oneness, a step away from the unifying, terrifying Hindu oneness? I sat zazen rather steadily for forty years and came to the realization that it is much a self-observational form of self-hypnosis, a subjection to quite sublime thought process, as real as it could be made into. Better that, of course, that the norm of Lethal Weapon III. I attained the seemingly sought-after state of "enlightenment," which I instantly recognized to be the revelation of the "endarkenment" in which we actually live and have created ourselves to make real as the world.
Better to make a world of great kindness and love than a world of great hatred and fear, but, as a Bible salesman with a withered hand preached to me on a bus from Albany to Boston in 1966, we humans have not even reached the Old Testament/Hebrew Scripture point of "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth," the point of which was that rather than slaughtering a whole village or town or even culture for the crime of one single person, we hold that one single person responsible for his crime. Our great needs for "transcendence" arises from our profound awareness, as unconscious as it may be, that we have no choice but to "be here now." I once read that book by Ram Dass in 1972 while tripped out and sitting on a high rock overlooking the Bay at Indian Rock in Berkeley. I recall a smiling Jesus with nails being hammered into his hands. Now, is this just one more "figment of imagination"? A chosen figment much better than fearing and hating certain people? Perhaps. Are some "lies" we tell ourselves so that we might more properly and readily be able to live our lives, better than others? I think so. It is better to protect your children than not to be able to do so. Do we protect them by creating a safer, saner, kinder world rather than building a stronger wall or arming them with better weapons? I think so.
If the case is that it is true that we make this world as it is, or at least greatly influence its development, I am with that bumpersticker with the Dalia Lama's quote: "My religion is kindness."
And so we so easily fall victim to ourselves, to our own beliefs and mindsets, be they traditional or innovative. Regardless of rightness or wrongness, logic or lack of logic, hatred begets hatred and violence begets violence. The American people so easily and readily dismiss Marianne Williamson's, which also was once Dennis Kucinich's notion of a Department of Peace. How dare we even consider the notion of Peace, much less passionately waging it. Who would benefit? What munitions factories would save us from Depression if we had "only" peace? "Imagine all the people...".
In other words, we create the world we imagine. If we ascribe ourselves to be "made in the image of God," is such a god a Smiter, a Destroyer of his children in true Gnostic, Manichean, Augustinian, Calvinist fashion? Or perhaps Hellenistic unifying, loving oneness, a step away from the unifying, terrifying Hindu oneness? I sat zazen rather steadily for forty years and came to the realization that it is much a self-observational form of self-hypnosis, a subjection to quite sublime thought process, as real as it could be made into. Better that, of course, that the norm of Lethal Weapon III. I attained the seemingly sought-after state of "enlightenment," which I instantly recognized to be the revelation of the "endarkenment" in which we actually live and have created ourselves to make real as the world.
Better to make a world of great kindness and love than a world of great hatred and fear, but, as a Bible salesman with a withered hand preached to me on a bus from Albany to Boston in 1966, we humans have not even reached the Old Testament/Hebrew Scripture point of "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth," the point of which was that rather than slaughtering a whole village or town or even culture for the crime of one single person, we hold that one single person responsible for his crime. Our great needs for "transcendence" arises from our profound awareness, as unconscious as it may be, that we have no choice but to "be here now." I once read that book by Ram Dass in 1972 while tripped out and sitting on a high rock overlooking the Bay at Indian Rock in Berkeley. I recall a smiling Jesus with nails being hammered into his hands. Now, is this just one more "figment of imagination"? A chosen figment much better than fearing and hating certain people? Perhaps. Are some "lies" we tell ourselves so that we might more properly and readily be able to live our lives, better than others? I think so. It is better to protect your children than not to be able to do so. Do we protect them by creating a safer, saner, kinder world rather than building a stronger wall or arming them with better weapons? I think so.
If the case is that it is true that we make this world as it is, or at least greatly influence its development, I am with that bumpersticker with the Dalia Lama's quote: "My religion is kindness."
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