Thoughts

[Pure760]

Really?

Yes, is it true if I rub your hair it is good luck?

 

[Eudaimonist]

To the mind of god choosing to experience this over him is rediculous, to him that would never be an option.

Why is that? Why wouldn't a god approve of one leading one's own life, reading magazines or whatever else one might chose to occupy one's time with?

And how would you know what a god would consider a legitimate option?


eudaimonia,

Mark

 

[hikersong]

Yes, is it true if I rub your hair it is good luck?

I thought I'd managed to keep that secret. But hey, you know you're worth it.

 

[Pure760]

Why is that? Why wouldn't a god approve of one leading one's own life, reading magazines or whatever else one might chose to occupy one's time with?

And how would you know what a god would consider a legitimate option?


eudaimonia,

Mark

This as in our current experience. Because your not leading your life your building a wall up against it. Your life is a prison cell with every detail created by you. This is not about what God as a separate entity wants, it is about what the God within you truely wants. Theres always a piece missing in your life, no matter how many problems solved there is always somthing more.. God is the missing piece that leads to complete satisfaction.

 

[Eudaimonist]

This as in our current experience. Because your not leading your life your building a wall up against it. Your life is a prison cell with every detail created by you. This is not about what God as a separate entity wants, it is about what the God within you truely wants. Theres always a piece missing in your life, no matter how many problems solved there is always somthing more.. God is the missing piece that leads to complete satisfaction.

Those are plenty of assumptions you are making about me, and about what some hypothetical aspect of me "truly wants". How do you know all this?


eudaimonia,

Mark

 

[Wicked Willow]

The very root, that is why it is so easily overlooked and difficult to attain. In reality its not difficult at all but we are now comfortable with difficulty.

Only cults and quacks promise instant enlightenment.

That's not to say that instant enlightenment isn't possible - it is - but that those who are overeager to hand out "free" gifts are mostly the ones who try to pump you for significantly more than just the contents of your purse.

You know, there's a whole MARKET out there geared towards those who've become disenchanted with organized religions, and it's every inch as insidious, greedy and fraudulent as the most jaded Televangelist sending out "prayer cloths" or some such nonsense.
The whole new age movement has been infiltrated and subverted, and become a HUUUUGE money-making machine. Heck, *I* could make a tremendous amount of money stitching together some cheesy "esoteric" booklet supposedly written by channelling some cosmic intelligence, telling people how to think themselves rich by letting go of the desire for money and sending it all to me. Even if only a few would actually do that, sales of the book alone would provide a steady income.
Luckily, my conscience is far too intact to allow me to prey on the gullible.

 

[Eudaimonist]

Only cults and quacks promise instant enlightenment.

It seems to me they are promising instant satisfaction. Complete satisfaction guaranteed, or your money back!

I can understand how satisfaction would be appealing, but it seems dubious that a god-within would be focused on achieving this. I would think such a god would be wiser.


eudaimonia,

Mark

 

[Wicked Willow]

It seems to me they are promising instant satisfaction. Complete satisfaction guaranteed, or your money back!

I can understand how satisfaction would be appealing, but it seems dubious that a god-within would be focused on achieving this. I would think such a god would be wiser.

Well, satisfaction is usually the bottom line, but rarely part of the sales pitch.

Instead, they promise a sense of safety to the unsettled, a sense of community to the lonely, secret knowledge to the curious, and healing to the broken.

Quack "New Agers", however, are indeed selling instant "enlightenment" more often than not. "Astral implants" transmitting extraterrestrial wisdom, all sorts of "chakra"-this and that (usually coming from people who have no knowledge of the actual indian lore pertaining to the matter whatsoever), supreme "channelled" revelations coming from the "ascended masters" (did you know, Jesus is one of them, now going by the name "Sananda"!), the whole world ascending to the next dimension in 2012 ("the Maya calendar predicts it!") and so on and so forth.

 

[Eudaimonist]

Well, satisfaction is usually the bottom line, but rarely part of the sales pitch.

It occurs to me now that the Buddha promised liberation from dissatisfaction, and I suppose that this could be termed "satisfaction". Perhaps it should not be so surprising that New Agers would have picked up on this.

I'm a little surprised that New Agers are talking so much about God though. It's been ages (well, two decades) since I was investigating New Age ideas to see what they had to offer, but I don't remember much talk of God back then (aside from some fuzzy nebulous presence "out there"), and certainly no claims that without God you will be dissatisfied with life. It seems to me that some evolution of the concepts has been taking place, though of course I might simply have been unaware of those currents of thought back then.


eudaimonia,

Mark

 

[Pure760]

Please stop comparing me to 'new agers' in my mind these are mostly women that hang out 'new age shows' and 'new age shops' and God is a cool thing to talk about for them, they do not take it seriously, buddhism is fine though because it does teach attainment of the truth, I consider it the only true structured religion. There is only 1 truth so if you are hearing things you've heard before this is why.