~~~Mystery Religion and Personal Religion~~~

   There isn't any adam and eve ashamed of their nakedness within the mystical feminine, these ladies, pictured above. It's a celebration of all of nature, this life, and there seems to be no personal religion and it's judgements clouding their consciousness, at all. It's like The Spearmint Rhino in Las Vegas, Nevada in the late single digit years of the beginning of  the 2000s, except the equation for bodily pleasure doesn't involve any Ben Franklins, a world we have created here in The Great American Spiritual Desert. In Las Vegas 'the savage heart of the american dream' it's most always an orgy 'controlled by money'. The painting above is a celebration of youth. Either way, it's this kind of personal freedom that personal religions have no desire to allow, as their Gods always seem to be dressed up in holy robes, or a business suit.

   Empires and religions walk hand in hand down the corridors of time as The King or The Caesar have a special audience, the preemminent relationship, with their God, or gods. Heirarchial control rests at the top of every totalitarian pyramid of power, be it held by a king, emperor, priest, or shepherd. Speaking for God and telling everyone what God wants them to do is every psychopaths wet dream. When religion gets personal, personal freedom vanishes. Brave New World. 1984. The former ecumenical christian community, Lamb of God, Incorporated. When you have that kind of power it's like an addictive drug, something you have to use, for when you really get down to it all of any society's behaviors can be controlled.

   Constantine and the cannonization of The Bible. Justinian I and the doctrinational elimination of reincarnation. Christianity lifted from obscurity by a dying Roman Empire and shaped in content by two Roman Caesars. Christianity is an extremely personal religion for it guarantees the salvation of your soul, he self, the little you. No longer do you have to fear death for your consciousness will be delivered into eternity by your own personal savior, Jesus, and through what he did you will be able to live forever, in Heaven, with God, and the other people he saved. That power a personal religion gives to the organization that represents God in this world is the deepest penetration and most controlling hook one person can have over another. Knowing God's Will for you creates two classes of people: those who know, and those who are told. An elite class, the master race spiritually speaking, and the common man who needs their help. Personal religions get really personal in their control of all that is personal, and that's why they're the best political religions ever invented. The Roman Empire and The United States of America, so what's the difference between these two? One sold religion 'over the counter', one 'under the counter' due to 'prohibition', but either way their personal religion was sold, it was toxic. The implosion of  Lamb of God personally illustrates just how personally violent personal leaders of personal religions can get, for it's just what happens when you try to establish, and manipulate, that which is sacred. The genocide of the Native American Peoples and the theft of their continent, the religious crusades and all their veiled conquests, The Final Solution of The 3rd Reich and mass extermination, the psychic slaughtering of all the sheep in Lamb of God, all of these holocausts, are examples of how personal religions go toxic. Doctrines that divide the whole, festering the belief that they are the best, that god is on their side, and they the chosen ones, and that all other non believers have no value whatsoever, such are the toxic mutations personal religion manifests, in mankind's consciousness.

   What in time is released into the timeless? What besides That Which Is can reside in both places? Is time just an illusion? What survives death? Mystery religion say that All Is One and the creator of all, That Which Is, is all around us and dancing within this temporary maya, this violent world, our earth, and all of it's seeming seperateness. Mystery religions tear at the veils of the illusions of thought, beg us leave the confines of Plato's Cave, awake from the dream, open our eyes, and see things as they actually are, timeless. The Life is within all of us, no one besides ourselves holds the key of our being alive, to all,  and to everything. Through the valley of the shadow of death, all this seemingly violent impermanence, space time, where everything comes and goes, is born and dies, has it's beginning, and then? The End. Mystery religion embraces the everchanging dance of maya, trusting the life, it is elways dying, always being reborn anew, in the moment; while personal religion, hangs on to what it's got, the illusion, for dear life.

   Mystery religion is molten, fluid, organic, alive and not fixated, while personal religion is set in doctrine, belief, and all the rigidity that the dead words of set cannons brings to consciousness. I've vacillated between these two religions all my life, from spiritualist hippie, to fundamental christian, and now, some kind of vedantist who really doesn't know a thing, but trusts the life that is within us all, like a little child, thankful for all that I have been given.

   Old wineskins can't hold new wine, and maybe next lifetime, I'll be frolicking in the springtime of our youth with those naked girls, having the freedom to be lost, and dance to the mystery. It sure wasn't in this lifetime, until I walked in the door of The Spearmint Rhino in the winter of 2005, and I was 55 years old.

  Life isn't death's opposite, birth is. Life is something altogether different and the only way to 'discover this' is, to live your life, not try to hold onto it, with thought and belief, for old wineskins can't hold new wine. Life is too expansive, alive, connected, whole, sacred, and one for that to happen. Life can not be held in a rigid vessel, for how could time ever contain, that which is timeless?

  Dead trees don't move with the wind.

  

~~~~~~~~FUNDYS ARE FUNNY~~~~~~~~~

  Fundys are funny~~~because they get things~~~so mixed up~~~for~~~when it comes to reality~~~the description is not the described~~~and~~~the word is not the thing~~~but they think when it comes to~~~The Bible~~~every word is perfect~~~of more value than the creation~~~itself. Now~~~you got to admit~~~that's very very funny!

   Constantine The Great had approximately 300 gospels~~~and who knows how many manuscripts and letters~~~to choose from~~~when he canonized the scriptures~~~all this happening 300 years after Jesus lived~~~and he did this as a roman emperor~~~while making Christianity the state religion. Justinian I~~~another roman emperor~~~tossed out reincarnation~~~500 years after Jesus and 200 years after Constantine~~~during The Council of Constantinople in 538 A.D.~~~making such a belief~~~christian anathema. One Lifetime? Many Lifetimes? One birth? Many births? Reincarnation wouldn't have been an issue~~~500 years after Jesus lived~~~if Christians weren't seeing it as a doctrine that complied with their faith~~~reincarnation being a part of their way of seeing~~~the way life is. Politics~~~is all that's left when spirituality is dead~~~and such control has no part in living the spiritual life. It's all about~~~Doing What You See The Father Doing~~~is it not?

   Right after The Mount of Transfiguration~~~when Jesus lit up and Peter wanted to pitch three tents for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah~~~and stay there forever~~~this conversation arose~~~"And His disciples asked Him, saying, "Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?" And he answered and said. "Elijah is coming and will restore all things; but I say to you, that Elijah already came, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they wished. So also the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands." Then the disciples understood that He had spoken to them about John The Baptist." Matthew 17:10-13. Elisha and Elijah. Jesus and John The Baptist. Is this reincarnation? Well? If Jesus is The Good Shepherd~~~it may take more than one lifetime to save all the wandering members of his flock~~~and furthermore~~~I wouldn't count on roman emperors making the right spiritual decisions~~~when it comes to anything.

   These days~~Jesus has gone whacko political~~~with the likes of James Dobson, Ralph Reed, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Bill Bright, Michele Bachmann~~~and too many others~~~both dead and alive~~~to mention~~~all guilty of~~~dressing him up in republican neo-conservative clothing~~~and wasn't this Jesus they're portraying~~~the guy who cleansed the temple and called the priests of his day  whitewashed sepulchres and their house of worship~~~just a den of thieves? Wasn't this Jesus the guy who hung out with whores and thieves? The guy who never owned anything~~~who never even owned a house? Well? Once religion goes political it's dead~~~just another mirage drifting above the arid floor of The Great American Spiritual Desert. Megachurches? Joel Osteen? Now who was it that said~~~You can Tell A Tree By It's Fruit~~~and~~~what you do for the least of these~~~you do for me?
   I'm afraid you'll find no answers here~~~you're going to have to find the answers yourself~~~and it's only God~~~who can show you what is true~~~and~~~what isn't. I remember when I was a novice christian asking about the billions of souls who through no fault of their own never heard the gospel~~~would they also be saved? Those who lived in different times~~~or~~~inaccessible cultures~~~or~~~died too young~~~what about them? Too bad~~~Jesus is the only way~~~leave it up to him~~~was the pat answer. I even wonder if the conservative republican Christians care about the innocents slaughtered in Iraq and Afghanistan? But damn~~~they sure are hard cases when it comes to abortion~~~no matter what the reason~~~and I wonder? Would they be so schizophrenic about the killing~~~if they saw that reincarnation was true?
   Fundys are funny~~~in the head~~~when they act as if this life~~~is what it's all about. Didn't Jesus say that whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it~~~but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it? How about a little more of that~~~my former~~~fundamental christian brothers and sisters~~~for once all this impermanence we dwell within is over~~~we will all be~~~AS ONE~~~together. Amen.