Is what you are saying literal? That Jesus is present within the universe but evil?

How could there be any doubt about this simple fact?

are you saying that Jesus is physically present in body or in spirit such as Christians would refer to the Holy Spirit?

Most atheists (I assume) think Jesus and/or His supernatural abilities are made up. I'm curious why you believe Jesus is evil and do you think there is a ying to his yang

I sense much confusion and doubt but the answers you seek are in yourself. You need to search for them.

it sounds like you are evading, perhaps you are unsure.

More doubt and confusion. Keep searching and the answers will come to you.

Lord have mercy

Seriously? I leave for one freaking day, and you f*ck the whole thing up.

Try again with another thread my friends. This one is done for me.

What made you think you can have all the fun? I post where I want when I want. And I'm not your friend, buddy.

If there is anyone that has been tracking my posts here with any intrigue:

The feeling of dread will often want to attach itself to a specific event, but there is a feeling of general dread that will elicit a feeling of self consciousness and the feeling of being stuck. Think of the movie Groundhog Day.

This general feeling of dread is the entry point into spiritual development. It is also an indicator that we have been disconnected from what I call the “transcendent feminine”, which is an exaggerated feeling of inspiration/beauty/meaning that enlivens us.

First, identify and hold the feeling of general dread (locate the feeling in your body and hold it). Then, seek out the feeling of transcendence, which can be done through engaging the arts or by memory. This feeling will also want to remain associated to a specific event, but you will need to disentangle it and make it general.

Once you are holding both of these two general feelings (go back and forth with your awareness to double check you are holding both), they will start to converge. After they converge, hold onto the converged feeling. It will reside somewhere in your body that you can locate and track.

This converged feeling is the path that I refer to. Everything I have ever shared here on this forum about “spiritual development” or “moral truth” is describing progression along this path of converged general dread + transcendence.

I get that feeling of dread when I read your posts. I imagine what would the world be if the majority of humans were like you.

Then I get a near panic attack and think: Terrifying. What would the world be if the majority of humans were like carlo!?. Then I start to cry.

Are these some valid immoral versus moral standards:

faith versus reason, obedience versus independence, dogma versus discovery, salvation versus enlightenment, supernatural source versus humanist source?

I read your post this morning, stone cold sober, with a cup of coffee.

I read it later, a little bit high.

I read it a bit later, high, with a couple shots.

I'm reading it now, in the condition I am, and still have no clue what you are talking about.

I'm pretty sure there is no possible situation I could be in where I would give a f*ck.

we value truth by hypnotizing ourselves to it via faith

To explain why people have difficulty understanding what I am talking about, I need to refer to the parable of the three servants:

The master = God

This parable is a metaphor for the “game” of life. The thing to understand is that we all start off as the servant who sees God as an unjust betrayer and squanders their one bag of silver. The servant who is “lazy”, “wicked”, and who has a low expectation of what they are capable of.

We also start off as someone who is resistant to or in denial of the reality of this game. This includes the following category of people:

Naive secularist - the world is loving and accommodating
Naive theist - God is loving and accommodating
Naive Pantheist - the Universe is loving and accommodating
Atheist materialist - the world is indifferent
Deist - God is indifferent

The similarity with all of these category 1 people is that they have yet to accept the conceptualization of God, the world, or the Universe as capable of betrayal or hostility. Because of this, they don’t identify with the metaphorical game described in the parable. Since they don’t identify with it, they don’t give much of their conscious attention to it. Therefore, they play it poorly.

Category 2 people include the theist who recognizes God as capable of betrayal and hostility, but see themselves as powerless, or see themselves as sinners who are worthy of betrayal. This category also includes the secularists who see the world as hostile and also see themselves as powerless. This category of people are incrementally more accepting and consciously aware of the game, but don’t see themselves as capable of playing the game well. They are only incrementally more consciously aware of the game because there will still be the tendency to deny or not want to participate in a game that you associate with failure and pain.

In order to play the game successfully as the investor servant who regularly proves worthy of more responsibility, it is necessary to both become more consciously aware of the game and more hopeful/optimistic about the game. To do this, one should see God as a betrayer but then attempt to “redeem” God by looking deeper. Similarly, they should see their own powerlessness/limitations and attempt to look deeper.

This is where ethics come in. To help cross this bridge, we can practice in our daily lives. When we experience an injustice, we can practice forgiving that person and when we fail, we can practice forgiving ourselves. As we develop this ability, we will be more capable of redeeming God, more capable of redeeming ourselves, and as a result more aware of the game and more capable in it.

The reason why there is so much trouble understanding much of what I share on this forum is because I am speaking the language of the servant who is good at investing and is given more and more. That requires both experience and awareness of the game, which takes time and effort.

First, you have no clue what a "talent" is. Hint: It's not silver.

Second, Jesus of Nazareth never explained the parable.

Third, you aren't Jesus.

Nice try, though.

Yeah, not so much.

"Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when doing out of religious conviction." - Pascal.

This statement seems very true, while we are talking about truth. "Why?" is a good question. Maybe because there is no righteous god/man behind them, and they are a primitive, pre-medieval, ignorant, barbaric construct of man?

Awakening, Self Betrayal, and the Takeover

I’ll be using Genesis 3 and John 10:1-21 to explain the process. It’s important to understand that Genesis 3 was not told by Jesus and is a story of a failed rebellion. The story is told from the perspective of the enemy, which is why the enemy posing as God is the protagonist, Adam and Eve (the failed betrayers) are seen as the antagonists, and the serpent who is the real God is portrayed as the enemy.

I should say that I am not saying the OT god is the enemy. I think of the imitator god in Genesis as the enemy, the God in the NT (the Father) as the real God, and then the OT god is an amalgamation of the two. The Garden of Eden is the fake paradise, or the world being falsely portrayed as reality, and then Adam/Eve are the masculine/feminine that make up consciousness.

In stories that map onto psychological/spiritual development the feminine often represent multiple aspects, so Eve both represents the feminine connected to Adam as well as the “transcendent feminine” that feeds Adam the fruit, which nourishes and guides. Further, the Garden represents the feminine that needs to be outgrown, which is also often represented by the mother and the world. Because of all this, I will tell the story from the perspective of Adam for simplicity.

As an aside, understanding this can help us interpret other stories such as the myth of Oedipal. In that story, Oedipal kills his father, marries his mother, becomes blind, and is ultimately exiled. Mapping that onto Genesis 3, that would be like Adam killing the serpent and becoming married to the Garden. This is why the Oedipal myth, which on the surface seems very odd, has lasted the test of time. It is the tragedy of a failed awakening just like Genesis 3. I realize that nobody interprets these stories this way, but we pass down stories for thousands of years not being to accurately interpret them fully even though we can sense deep truths in them.

In John 10, consciousness is represented by both the sheep in combination with the Good Shepherd. The Shepherd is the Self Betrayer. As we awaken and become more conscious, the sheep gather in the pen and the Shepherd starts to move toward the pen. When we fragment and fall back into unconsciousness, that is the sheep being scattered and the “hired hand” imitating the Shepherd being chased off. In other words, a failed takeover.

(Continuing)

Going back to Genesis, we can think of the beginning as Adam fully engaged in the Garden, eating from the trees that he was given permission to eat from. This is analogous to a young child fully engrossed in a flush, meaningful world. Eventually, tragedy or disruption occurs. Adam begins to sense his situation and laments. However, the enemy doesn’t feel the need to intervene since he realizes that Adam will soon fall back asleep.

Once Adam gets to the point that rebellion is on his mind, then the enemy will intervene by cutting him off from all of the trees that he was feeding from. That is described here:

“Cursed is the ground because of you;
****through painful toil you will eat food from it
****all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
****and you will eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your brow
****you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
****since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
****and to dust you will return.”

The idea is to disperse Adam back to dust, or to “scatter the sheep” back to unconsciousness. How does that translate to our daily lives? Adam considering rebellion is the feeling of dread and then the enemy starving Adam out is going to feel like apathy or depression. So when we feel dread and apathy, we don’t want to try to escape from it or lose ourselves. If we can endure, then the tree of discernment will present itself and nourish/guide us. This is like watching a movie or listening to a song that sticks with you. I can remember when I would listen to a song on repeat all day for long stretches of time. This is an example of eating from the tree of discernment associated with the divine feminine. Another common example is falling in love.

As the Shepherd gathers the sheep in the pen, the thief is going to attempt to break in and scatter the sheep. This will often present as negative thoughts (guilt, self hate, etc) or a self preservation instinct. Once the Shepherd leads the flock toward the gate, or once Adam reaches the border of the Garden, there will be a resistance point. This is the transition point in which the Self Betrayer is on the verge of taking over control. Proceeding beyond this point requires a push. That will look like a failure point in our lives. We should be on the lookout for self sabotage.

When this occurs, the enemy is going to have a strong reaction, which will often present as feelings of worthlessness, shame, etc. If we stay solid through this, then we have made it over the apex and are now at the descent. Gradually, there will be a noticeable improvement in quality of life, an increase in conscious awareness, and closer connection to the conscience.

That doesn’t mean that we will no longer be lost to unconsciousness, but we will awaken easier and find our way back to where we were since the path has now been forged. Failed rebellions can be traumatizing and a lot of time can pass before there is sufficient motivation for another attempt. This isn’t the end of the self betrayal, but it is a good stopping point.

Keep writing your book no one will ever read.

It's kinda fun to watch the ego at work......

You glanced at it. Admit it.

I didn't glance. I read it all, twice.

Not buying the book.

I’m not in this for money.