comparing 'holy' books

[Kaienne]

While I do expect to be flamed for it, this topic reminds me of a journal entry I wrote awhile ago concerning certain similarities between the major religions. It was a long entry, so I'll just post a portion of it. The rest of the entry can be found on this journal:
http://unlikelychrist.livejournal.com/

There are three states of being; the material, the mental, and the divine.

In Christianity, these three states are represented by the Me, the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit, and the Father. I represent the Material, the Holy Spirit represents the mental, and my Father represents the Divine. We all know God exists in the Divine. Duh. I live in the Material world (obviously), and the Holy Spirit exists only in the mental.
("The Holy Spirit is different from Jesus in that He does not have a physical manifestation (or incarnation), and that He frequently dwells in and amongst God's people as a spiritual guide and Comforter." -Wikipedia)
Some believe that God and Heaven are one and the same; this is almost true. Some believe Heaven is within God, as all things are within God. This is true.
Three is also the number of wise men that came to see me at birth in Bethlehem, and the number of days since when they killed my sorry ass in Rome and when my little brother came and took my place and claimed to be me. What- you don't really think I came back from the dead, did you? I'm not a freakin' zombie.

In Hinduism, these concepts are referred to as the Maya, the Paramatma, and the Brahman. The Maya is the illusion of the material realm that must be overcome if one is to free oneself from the wheel of Karma and and Kharmic Reincarnation. The Paramatma is the 'supersoul'; "Paramatman is situated in the heart of every individual jiva in the macrocosm." (-W) All souls are one with the supersoul. Brahman is described as "truth-consciousness-bliss"; it is "the unchanging, infinite, immanent, and transcendent reality which is the Divine Ground of all matter, energy, time, space, being, and everything beyond in this universe." (-W)

In Zen Buddhism, there are basically three stages of enlightenment; 0, 1, and 2. In the 0th stage, the person has not had any experience analogous with enlightenment. In the first stage, Kensho, the practitioner sees enlightenment once, is given a taste for it. Their progress takes them to the mental stage; they are now cognizant of what enlightenment is like, even though they're not living it. The second stage is Satori, whereby the practitioner achieves a permanent state of enlightenment, forging their connection with the Collective Unconscious (or whatever you want to call it).

In Taoism there are three states, represented by the Yin-Yang. The state of Yang is that of things that are hard, bright, material, solid, et cetera; that is, the Material Realm is Yang. Yin, on the other hand, is liquid, shifting, elusive, tricky; it could be argued that the intangible Tao itself is Yin, as opposed to the tangible Material Yang. The last state in this set is that of balance; perfect seamless harmony.

Also, the problem with information is that oftentimes it's in conflict. I would rather burn a book like, say, The Secret, than let it poison people.

[LMNO]

How is The Secret any different than saying "Jesus will provide"?

[Kaienne]

Jesus [of Nazareth] won't provide, he's dead. I'd burn those books too.

[LMNO]

Then, how is the Secret different from WuWei?

[Kaienne]

I can't really say anything about the book, to be honest. I only saw the movie. So I guess I'd burn the movies, but give the books a chance. The movie, though, was a horrific display of consumerism. It doesn't mention anything about trash like, y'know, love, or peace, but rather covers the important stuff like "I wanted a car and I got that car!" and "I wanted a house and got that house!"

[Lies]

Burn the books and kill the mother fuckers who made the movie is where I stand.

[LMNO]

Of course, you both realize that The Secret never has professed to being any sort of religion, or being even vaguely spiritual, right?









LMNO
-couldn't really give a shit about The Secret; more concerned y'all don't sound like morons when you start bashing it.

[Cain]

According to Wikipedia*, its related to the Law of Attraction which is, basically, New Age bullshit.

*Shut up.  Right now.

[LMNO]

...But it's a Law!

[Cain]

 

So's the PATRIOT Act.  Doesn't stop it being bullshit.

Also, its the worst sort of bullshit.  It basically says anything wrong with you is your own fault.  So, for example, all those people in Cambodia wanted to die.  They had a collective death wish, or else weren't just trying hard enough to get what they really wanted.

How...compassionate.

[LMNO]

And yet, if you twist it another way, it's just the Law of Fives Quarter Trick writ large...











...and stupid.

[Cain]

Yes and no.  Law of Fives relates to perception, contextually.  Law of Attraction states explicitly that it relates to reality and changes to it via thought alone.  Rather big difference, IMO.

[LMNO]

Good point.  One is describing how your perceptions will change to fit your beliefs, and the other says the actual Universe itself will change.




So, we all agree:  The Secret is bullshit, and may be hazardous.

[Kaienne]

The Secret is just a horribly mistranslated version of some old Eastern tenets... Stuff like, you cannot change the world, you can only change yourself, or what Mahatma Ghandi said; "Be the change you wish to see in the world."
The whole point of these teachings is to impart upon the student that all change must start with the self, but new-age capitolists are really good at misconstrewing things.

[Chairman Risus]

I don't see how you're mixing new-age with capitalism.

capitolists | miscontrewing

Not real words.