old3bob

Btw, there has been speculations about reincarnating into the past to correct past karma making for better outcomes down the line... (haven't come across that speculation here which happens to include some Bible verses (believe it or not Ripley) )

haha, reminds me of when I played catcher in little league without something like that which was a mistake! (besides thinking I could also be a pitcher which was true until someone went up to bat)

good luck when your time comes...

I'd say that besides types of illusions that may only be in our heads or that might be downplayed or written off as only that, there are real beings that are predatory dark souls which are not written off so easily or just by philosophical thoughts. Thus all the thousands of years of work that protective beings have done and are doing, along with teachings and methods that have been used against such forces. Btw, most orthodox shrinks know nothing of the other side...and also write off problem's related to it as just a mental or emotional delusions.

well there is that saying: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Proverbs 9:10) But what in the hell does that mean and how can that be if God is love? Well its more or less emotional pretzel time if you are a Christian trying to fully understand that but if it was changed to a more "eastern" meaning of, "one should knowingly fear breaking dharma for karma will then kick your ass a good one", is easier to understand for me.

May God, gods, devas, masters and ourselves help us! So much horrific and willful evil along with other forms of destructive chaos and suffering ran wild for mankind in 2025, along with great harm to the Mother Earth! The battles and wars continue, but there is light at the end of the long tunnel.

"Idol worship" is fundamentally and totally misunderstood in the Abrahamic religions but not in some "eastern" ways per this quote: So strange to some but not others... "SHLOKA 108 We worship God Siva and the Gods who by their infinite powers spiritually hover over and indwell the image, or murti, which we revere as their temporary body. We commune with them through the ritual act of puja. Aum. BHASHYA The stone or metal Deity images are not mere symbols of the Gods; they are the form through which their love, power and blessings flood forth into this world. We may liken this mystery to our ability to communicate with others through the telephone. We do not talk to the telephone; rather we use a telephone as a means of communication with another person who is perhaps thousands of miles away. Without the telephone, we could not converse across such distances; and without the sanctified murti in the temple or shrine we cannot easily commune with the Deity. His vibration and presence can be felt in the image, and He can use the image as a temporary physical-plane body or channel. As we progress in our worship, we begin to adore the image as the Deity's physical body, for we know that He is actually present and conscious in it during puja, aware of our thoughts and feelings and even sensing the pujari's gentle touch on the metal or stone. The Vedas exclaim," Come down to us, Rudra, who art in the high mountains. Come and let the light of thy face, free from fear and evil, shine upon us. Come to us with thy love.”Aum Namah Sivaya.” GURUDEVA" Edited Saturday at 09:12 AM by old3bob

anyone who jumps out of airplane without a parachute is nuts to say the least, those with a parachute less so.

My take is that all 'lesser' desires can be boiled down to or driven by a seeking for the true desire (often in all the wrong places via the schools of hard knocks) which is for freedom and satisfaction of the soul finding and knowing its own Soul. To try and quash that and related life force is missing the boat and futile. True desire is the force behind or within all beings to find and know what the hell is really going on (including right dharmas) , thus not an elaborate and or high sounding philosophy that may get turned into or be interpreted as a dead like denial of that force.

right, similar wonderings for politics which are part of most everything mankind does regardless of trying to deny so.

not much mention about the ways and means that the Devas and Gods help out mankind? (including helping the historic Buddha at a critical juncture) What gives? Just meditate and be happy is all it takes.... since we have "our books and poetry to protect us" along with an all powerful intellect.

on a side note: religions are for use of mankind, mankind is not for use of religions...

yea, we can hope the whale burps

did Jonah say there's light at the end of the whales belly?

Lets not forget that are probably organic pretzels to be had somewhere that are baked with ancient sea salt on them; so watch out for those GMO ones with bleached salt that is minus natural trace elements! Btw, If I remember correctly Jesus had something to say about salt, and in his day most of it probably had its natural trace elements.

"Autobiography of a Yogi" goes into Hindu-yoga/ Christianity correlations a lot but to me parts of it are a bridge too far...

well I've done some of that pretzel-ing myself but it doesn't really work that well with the wide and sometimes very drastic differences among religions even if ultimately they all or mostly derive from on pretzel.

I'd say most "Eastern religions" and many of its ways do not correlate or match up all that well with major parts of orthodox Christianity. Thus many (new age like) attempts to conflate same could twist one's mind into a pretzel even if there are some correlations that do match up. Btw, "the last will be first, and the first will be last" Matthew 19:30. Is a saying I appreciate but what does it mean to me? My take is that the first to manifest will be the last to return to the unmanifest, or in other words the very first and purest light and sound (aka the "Word" in Christianity) to manifest will be the last to return to "Mystery" (a term used in Taoism) or the unmanifest which the human mind can not really wrap its head around except as a concept. Btw #2, Ime Master Jesus is like both an awesome indomitable "lion" of unbreakable golden/white light spiritual will power yet He can also be like a gentle shepherd with us human beings (with many of us that are like lambs or sheep in comparison to the more evolved souls that are like lions in their will power that is in alignment with the greater power) per or in an appropriate context.

One form of heavy duty punishment is the "silent treatment"/isolation, its a tough one to deal with for us human beings who many would probably prefer someone getting on our case if need be in comparison!

We hear and see examples of people extending unconditional forgiveness for harm done to them but sometimes without there also being the very important step of some type of repentance by the one that did them harm! Anyway I copied the excerpt below as an example about that from a much longer text...(with Bible related sayings although I think not limited to Abrahamic religions) "But wait! I missed a step. Something VERY important has to happen first. Something that EVERYONE forgets when they talk about MERCY and forgiveness. Luke 17:3 Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and IF HE REPENT, forgive him. Did he say to forgive your brother for his sins against you? NO! He said REBUKE HIM! Judge him for his sins against you, and TELL HIM HE WAS WRONG! And IF HE REPENTS, IF HE REPENTS THEN, and ONLY THEN, FORGIVE HIM! That’s what He said. IF HE REPENT is in that scripture. And it’s there for a reason. “forgiving” a brother without him first repenting to you, is tantamount to “forgiving” a shark for biting your arm off, as it swims around for a bigger piece. (not a very good example imo since a shark is not human and biting is in its nature) But hold on, you say – Christ said to forgive a brother SEVENTY TIMES SEVEN – and should we do no less? You’re absolutely right! We should do EXACTLY what Christ said and FORGIVE THEM EACH TIME! But wait… in the very next verse here it says… Verse 4: And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him. For EACH AND EVERY ONE of those SEVEN TIMES in that day that he sinned against you, he has to turn to you and say “I REPENT!“ or, in our language ”I am sorry! I was wrong!” and THEN – ONLY then, mind you – are you to forgive him! " Then again there is also the aspect or act of not burning oneself up with bitterness if repentance was never given, and thus not easy to deal with also "seventy times seven" !

most everything has a political aspect of some kind, (good or bad) no getting around that, including thinking that it doesn't ! fear of or crossing those in power like dictators is adharmic politics in action...

another paraphrased tangent about punishment: Jesus stopped a crowd of people that wanted to stone a woman to death who had been 'naughty' by saying, "he who is without sin cast the first stone" but no one in crowd could do so. Soon followed by him saying to her privately, "go your way and sin no more". so about 180 degrees off from the earlier quote from Luke although in a very different context, yet I'd say is something think about/realize compared to the pro-judgement mentioned in the op. and also in some points that it sounded to me like some were trying to get across. (?)

for human beings and all other beings there are dharmic rules or laws and related consequences if broken...thus not so different in result. The "kindness to the unkind" aspect you speak of hopefully kicks into the awareness of the offender quickly or at least after eons...

like every vow and precept that an order has. Annihilation of ego is one thing but that is not annihilation of Self or Spirit which is not on a slippery slope and may be exacting or compassionate depending on the case...(which btw is not really comprehensible to the human mind since same is beyond it)

deep diplomatic thinking as usual on your part Steve.... then again we dont' have to over think a case where student (new or advanced) breaks the vows or precepts of an order that they belong to is not automatically forgiven by the lineage holder unless they go through some type of repentance or corrections of varying degrees depending on the offense....and if they don't do that they are simply kicked out, or maybe worse karma than that will come their way.