Spiritual Beings

Many have heard the adage, "we are spiritual beings having an earthly experience." Most religions will agree on this fact but the debate stems from what happens after this particular life. This is where all the vast, complex, and wide-ranging disparities come into play. This is what causes most wars to be fought and historically, has created major dissension. Unfortunately, many future conflicts will stem from religious nonconformity.

This lens will enlist the assistance of some of the greatest thinkers of our time and associate their thoughts with those of the author, and contrast it with general public opinion. In the case of religion and "man-made-spirituality" most of what we know about the subject, comes from "Mom and Dad," Uncle Louie, Aunt Mildred, your Sunday School teacher, Bill, who for some odd reason always had a weird "twinkle" in his eye when he was around children, and of course, Pastor/Bishop/Minister/Priest Johnny. The reader knows where I'm going with this so before you utter the phrase, "I don't receive the word from MAN/WOMAN, I get "God's Word" from my "Savior." Maybe you do, but it's been filtered through the aforementioned. For example, David Koresh, Marshall Applewhite, and Jim Jones all led mass religious movements that ended in horrific tragedies and their members could have, and probably did say the same thing, "I get the word from God." Of course these are extreme examples so let's just stick to the pedophiles, whore-mongers, and avaricious men of today that make up a good percentage of the clergy around the world. If you sit in that synagogue, mosque, temple, or church, and listen to someone who is not morally correct, your instruction is not coming from a Loving, Divine, Presence that we refer to as God, iIt's coming from Pastor Fred, regardless of how you slice it.

So lets take a look at some of the time tested aphorisms uttered throughout the ages that ring true to this authors heart. What I'd like the reader to do is compare past writings from erudite citizens with your experience over the years with your religious/spiritual teachers. I will translate what their sayings mean to me and how it resonates in my soul.

Continued