streaming consciousness…

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  hardie karges 10:31 am on December 13, 2015 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Buddhism ( 513 ), CHRISTIANITY, ISLAM ( 67 )   

  The Perfect Religion: 10 Commandments, 8-fold Path, 5 Pillars, 4 Noble Truths, 1 Creator 

  

  Christian church in Ethiopia

  Okay, so back to the grind: creating, or let’s say ‘distilling’, the perfect religion. After all, we’re not trying to create something from scratch, quite the opposite, in fact, we’re trying to reconcile religions—all religions—and science, too. Contradictions, in my view, are only apparent, not real.

  If we all love our kids, then we all love God, however that’s defined. All religions have central tenets, and articles of faith, of course, and so does my hypothetically perfect one, as previously noted, and most of them gleaned from the major religions.

  The Five Pillars of Islam are: faith, prayer, alms-giving, fasting, and pilgrimage, all pretty basic, of which pilgrimage to Mecca might be discarded for our general use as too cult-specific, non-general, and non-attainable. Visas to Saudi Arabia are hard to come by, even for Muslims. (More …)

   

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  hardie karges 10:03 am on December 6, 2015 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Buddha ( 49 ), CHRISTIANITY, Einstein ( 11 ), ISLAM ( 67 ), JESUS ( 21 ), Judaism ( 7 ), Muhammad ( 2 ), Plato ( 17 )   

  The New Religion: Science (and the speed of light as the threshold to heaven) 

  LGBTQA’s like to talk about how they often feel ‘trapped in this body’, generally referring to a male in a female body or vice versa, but aren’t we all ‘trapped in this body’? Isn’t it almost an axiom of Christianity that our souls are trying to be free? Isn’t that why we’re all here, looking for something more, something different, something ‘spiritual’ if not holy religious, some philosophical succor on an otherwise average Sunday, which could be used for the counting of our monies were it not for some lingering Judeo-Christian-Islamic notion of a Sabbath to be kept sacred, not scared and not working?

  I mean: there’s nothing wrong with this world of five or so senses, nothing except for the fears, hatred, frustrations and cruelty, that is, but full of undeniable beauty, also, e.g. nature in all its splendor and grandeur. But still: isn’t there something more, just behind our reach, right behind the projection screen, almost touchable almost ‘feel-able’ if not quite audible visible or smell-able—okay, so maybe smell-able… (More …)
   
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  hardie karges 8:32 am on November 22, 2015 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Buddhism ( 513 ), CHRISTIANITY, Isis ( 8 ), ISLAM ( 67 ), Paris   

  In Memoriam: We Are All One, Like it or Not… 

   

  

  Spires In Thailand

  “If you love your life, you will lose it…If you give it up in this world, you will be given eternal life.”

  –John 12:25

  For some reason, that sentiment resonates with me, and many others, I think, that the rewards of this earthly existence are transient and ephemeral, and that there are bigger and better things to do here than getting and spending and counting our money. This is but a brief interlude, by any measure, and it’s a real shame to waste it in mindless murder—or even mindless multiplication. But we’re only human; that’s what we do. We possess. We accumulate. We go forth and multiply… all of which is fine, as long as we don’t get too attached to it, or even worse: ‘fall in love’ with it.

  The events of Paris last week are a good example. Now that the dust has settled and some scores have been settled over the ownership of the land that was settled by our progenitors, it’s not hard to see the vicious circuitry to it all, the battle for one-up-man-ship that pervades all human interactions from the seminal act of sex to the terminal act of death, the jockeying for position and the positioning of jockeys for maximum exposure and maximum penetration. Pounds of flesh have been demanded as retribution and paid in kind over centuries, but nothing has really changed, has it? (More …)

  hardie karges and davekingsbury are discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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    davekingsbury 7:07 pm on November 23, 2015 Permalink | Reply

    Friend of mine once told me his depression lifted when he stopped seeing others as different and realised we are all the same … nice post!

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      hardie karges 7:25 pm on November 23, 2015 Permalink | Reply

      Thanks, I know it’s risky to promote any sympathy or even understanding of ISIL…

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    davekingsbury 7:34 pm on November 23, 2015 Permalink | Reply

    Honesty is the best policy, or so I was always told.

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      hardie karges 9:45 am on November 24, 2015 Permalink | Reply

      🙂

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  hardie karges 8:03 am on November 8, 2015 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: alcohol, Buddhism ( 513 ), CHRISTIANITY, Hinduism ( 32 ), ISLAM ( 67 )   

  Building the Perfect Religion: Humility, Moderation and Sobriety? Ouch… 

  Well, I guess sex is no big deal, after all, in my perfect hypothetical religion, basically just: cover your genitals, please. And don’t do it in public. And hide it from the kids. Dress moderately. Homosexuality is okay, as long as you don’t demand the right to march down Market Street in only your jockstrap. Abortion is a horrible thing, but ultimately a woman’s right to choose, for lack of better options. I would only say to women who see this issue as only an issue of women’s health: we’re talking about a human life here, okay? At some point it becomes murder, which is not okay… what else?

  Like sex, most religions don’t deal with issues of sobriety directly, but many do, being prohibited outright in some. Once again I see no clear path either way, but it has certainly been an object of contention over the years. To this day, many counties and cities in the USA are ‘dry’, not allowing any sales of alcohol; and many others are so restrictive that they accomplish much the same purpose, allowing mixed drinks only in eating establishments, for instance, the only stand-alone bars limited to beer.

  But mention Christianity or the West to much of the world, and the first image that comes to many foreigners’ minds is alcohol—and drunkenness. It’s pretty accurate, really. Historical scuttlebutt is that the Celts invaded the Roman Empire looking for wine, long after they themselves had had a reputation for beer, from which the Spanish word for it—cerveza—comes, apparently. They likely invented wheels and pivoting axles, too, so the buzz is not necessarily bad, just disgusting for a lot of people, it seems. I concur. It’s messy. There are cleaner highs, if you just gotta… (More …)

   
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  hardie karges 1:07 pm on November 6, 2015 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: America ( 59 ), capitalism ( 26 ), CHRISTIANITY, DEMOCRACY ( 11 )   

  The Decline of Western Civilization: RIP Amerika, Christianity, Capitalism, Democracy, etc… 

  Well, we had a good run, we did, Western Civilization, that is, as first articulated by Greece and Rome, before taken up again by London and Paris some 1000 years later, then New York, Toronto and Sydney for the final roll-out. Democracy was our method, Christianity was our mantra and capitalism was our madness. It worked spectacularly, until now, until we’ve run out of resources and ideas. Now we’re put to the test: what’s next?

  Well, it doesn’t look good for the home team; seems capitalism is something of a pyramid scheme—works fine when you’re on top, with lots of resources and free time. Now other non-Westerners can play the game as well or better than us: first Japan, now China, with India, Brazil, and Russia hot on the horizon. Where does that leave us? Well, it should leave us defining the next era, beyond capitalism, beyond consumption, beyond die-hard democracy. But it’s not.

  We’re totally unequipped for what comes next, all of us Westerners, Amerika the least, screwing up the Mideast, sowing our dreams of democracy, and leaving nothing but chaos in the wake—enough, already. We Amerikans have nothing to teach the world about politics, least of all democracy. We can barely get a budget bill through Congress to pay our debts. Now we’re destroying the environment, while still pushing the political and economic agenda of growth growth growth. We’re sick. (More …)

   
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  hardie karges 11:08 am on October 11, 2015 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Buddhism ( 513 ), CHRISTIANITY, Middle Path ( 70 ), Pride ( 2 ), sin ( 4 )   

  Building the Perfect Religion: Buddhist Middle Path and the Pride of Sin… 

  

  In Spires In Thailand

  Now I’m not sure exactly what the Scottish rock band Franz Ferdinand had in mind when they sang about “right thoughts right words right action”, but I suspect that at least one of the blokes has some interest in Buddhism, because that little trifecta of meaning pretty much sums up the Buddhist ‘Middle Path’.

  And if avoidance of excess is one of the cornerstones of our hypothetical perfect religion—akin to the Buddhist Middle Path—then humility would have to be the second cornerstone. Note the similarity—and difference—to and from the related concept of humiliation. This is where the Middle Path comes in again. Humility, aka ‘humbleness’ is a very good thing, while humiliation is not, whether on the ends of giving or receiving…

  Pride is its opposite, of course, and well-known as one of the Christian sins, and probably one of the least-respected and most-abused. After all, what father is not proud of his son, and less deserving of it? It’s as though fathers and mothers see their sons’ and daughters’ actions and accomplishments as direct reflections on themselves, as though their offspring are hired hands with scripted roles to play. Sounds like a recipe for disaster… salt to taste… (More …)

   
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  hardie karges 11:28 am on September 6, 2015 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: America ( 59 ), capitalism ( 26 ), China ( 14 ), CHRISTIANITY   

  The Decline of Western Civilization (Part 2: Bankers, Barkers and Religion…) 

  

  Christian God

  But first my Sunday confession, Father: I’ve been called Communist and I’ve been called Jihadi. Liberals call me a Conservative. Conservatives call me a Liberal. It’s all true. I’m a contrary son-of-a-b*tch, known to act as the devil’s avocado, barely ripe, slippery when wet, but not merely for the sake of argument, I swear, but to try to reach some higher truth, later if not sooner, and for all our sakes, not just my own. When I lived in Berkeley I WAS conservative. When I lived in Mississippi I WAS liberal. Doctrines are there to be challenged, and dogma is there to be run over by karma…

  Now we all know how stupid are the tea-party wing of America’s Republican political party, but that doesn’t mean that Democrats are all geniuses (genii?). The difference between conservatives and liberals, or republicans and democrats, which basically defines the power relationships in the world, is basically the difference between the two types of people in the world: those who save their money—or resources—and those who don’t. Please note, Republicans, that I didn’t use the word ‘lazy’ and I don’t intend to, as I don’t think that is the fundamental issue. (More …)

   
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  hardie karges 9:15 am on August 30, 2015 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Buddhism ( 513 ), CHRISTIANITY   

  Buddhism 101: Life is about Suffering, and Its Cessation (NOT the Pursuit of Happiness)… 

  

  Statue of Buddha in Kandy, Sri Lanka

  First Noble (Aryan, Civilized, Precious) Truth (Reality, Faith, Fact, etc.): “Now this, bhikkhus, is the noble truth of suffering: birth is suffering, aging is suffering, illness is suffering, death is suffering; union with what is displeasing is suffering; separation from what is pleasing is suffering; not to get what one wants is suffering; in brief, the five aggregates subject to clinging are suffering.”

  In other words: Life is suffering.  If you don’t understand that, then you’ll never really understand Buddhism.  Many modern proselytizing Buddhist priests from foreign ports, and their local converts and adherents, try to downplay this fact for their shiny happy American audiences, ultimately doing a disservice to both: weakening the philosophy and misleading the Homies.  No, there is no mistranslation, nor any misunderstanding.  That’s what he said and that’s what he meant.  Our lives as Americans are a lie, shiny and happy with mouth wide open.  There’s a word for that: Christian; not Buddhist.

  Second Truth: “Now this, bhikkhus, is the noble truth of the origin of suffering: it is this craving which leads to re-becoming, accompanied by delight and lust, seeking delight here and there; that is, craving for sensual pleasures, craving for becoming, craving for dis-becoming.”

  In other words: There is a cause for this suffering—desire.  Sorry, Homies, but Buddhism is not about ‘following your passion.’  ‘Following your passion’ is verrrry Christian.  This is Buddhism.  Get over it. (More …)

   
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  hardie karges 8:19 am on August 23, 2015 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Apocalypse ( 12 ), CHRISTIANITY, End of Days   

  Religio-Politics 101: Christian Death Wish–Apocalypse Soon? 

  The difference between me and the Christian Apocalyptics is that they want the End of Days; I don’t. Michelle Bachmann (remember her?) even actively encourages it, suggesting that the Iran nuclear deal would fit that business plan perfectly—great. And most mainstream Christians aren’t much better, they some of the world’s biggest consumers, they and their suburbs and Subarus and eight-lane freeways and store-bought freedoms, life measured by toys in the attic and needles for the addict…

  Of course what we have in common is that we both see the poop hitting the ventilator soon and life as we know it coming to an unceremonious end. Once again, though, they’re expecting some kind of rapture, while I’m looking for massive social disruptions and an economic crash that will… (wait for it)… likely solve the cause of the problem—eventually. By then, of course, it’ll be too late by some people’s reckoning and we’ll never get back to where we are today—good. Today sux… (More …)

   
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  hardie karges 10:04 am on August 16, 2015 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: CHRISTIANITY, GOD ( 25 ), JESUS ( 21 ), love ( 49 )   

  Love’s ‘Crush’ as the Basis for Religion? Or maybe shamanism or ‘life-coaching’ or … wha’d’ya got? 

  

  We all know that ‘crush’ of falling in love, if not for the first time, then at least the first time in a long time, or with any one particular person, something that can go on for days, weeks, months, even years, while you try to get sorted and either get it or forget it. That’s the problem, of course, that ‘crushes’ can consume you, multiple times, and then just go away like nothing ever happened: “now you’re just somebody that I used to know”…

  I don’t think I’m being too ‘anal’ (pardon the cliché) by suggesting that this is not always the optimal basis for a relationship—sometimes maybe, but not always. The opposite extreme, of course, would be to have marriages that are not only planned, but planned by someone else! Yeow! That goes directly against modern Western thinking, obviously, though still quite popular in traditional cultures of the Asian sub-continent and elsewhere. (More …)