YHWH answers a Philosopher
on Apr 27 in Philosophy, Religion by T.M. CoalI recently wrote a paper expressing some of my deepest questions pertaining to the Bible. Ever since that time I have thought, studied, and prayed deeply and this is a narrative expressing the findings I have unearth in the form of a conversation between myself and God. I have posed just and hard questions and I owe all who do me the honor of reading my thoughts deep and rational answers. Blessings and wisdom.
Please excuse any grammar atrocities, I am almost finished writing a book and do not have any extra time to devote to fine tuning.
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One day as God was surveying the earth one of his many eyes glimpsed a struggling mortal. Struggling mortals are no new thing, indeed the earth if filled with them, but this one was different. Looking deep into them God realized that unlike the others this one had cast off fear of Him as well as the desire for His pleasures. This individual had come to place where all they craved was truth, opinions of others did not matter, prosperity did not matter, even life itself had lost its value. As He focused on the individual He heard deep and painful questions and He spoke within Himself, “Finally, someone who is not afraid to ask.” Not content to send a mere angel God sent himself, without moving, to the car where the philosopher sat being pounded by the rain.
“I am the Unplanted Root of Eternity, and I am sorry you have had to endure this reality and the circumstances created by the ignorance of your forefathers. Like all humanity you suffer only because you do not understand realities nature, and I have come to end your suffering.” , said God. The philosopher was humbled, and seen clearly his limits, but fear was no where in him and he replied, “Then I would ask that you answer me, if indeed there is an answer, because a child can weep in silence before the door of its parent only so long before it chooses to become an orphan and direct its own fate.”
The Philosopher Who Questioned Jehovah
on Mar 22 in Philosophy, Religion by T.M. CoalYou, me, and all of us are afloat in a endless cosmos. We are like mites in the ear of a grand dog whose end or beginning is so far from us we will never see them. For 29 years I have been a participant in this life but I have never found contentment in just sitting somewhere and letting reality act on me. I have always taken things apart and challenged, sometimes stupidly, the wisdom and nature of the authorities in my life. I have never stayed in bounds and even though this tendency has caused problems I would not exchange a moment of it for the comfort found in not thinking.
One of the most interesting things about asking why and seeking an understanding is that every answer you find is only a door to 50 more questions. Every answer opens to a staircase that takes you down to a deeper set of questions. This process repeats until you reach a point where you are too limited in scale, duration, or understanding to answer the level of questions that now confront you. When this happens one can either accept their current limits or exercise their curiosity, intellect, and intuition as we would muscles to expand their size, strength, and content in the hope of answering those mysteries.
I once read, “Those who have not asked the question are not ready for the answer” and I think this gets to the heart of it. If we have not asked deep questions we are not ready for deep explanations. Whenever we are born we know nothing and then the meanings and symbols our culture has applied to the material objects around us are taught us. From birth our mind, is “informed”, our inner mind is shaped into the same form as the ideas of those around us. This first set of ideas, and the ideas which we prefer or think most true, become the ruler that measures life and all it holds.
The Assembly — A Short Story to Reveal Reality
on Mar 01 in Philosophy by T.M. CoalThe Assembly
One day many of the major philosophies and religions of humanity sent delegates to a meeting hall to prove which of them had realized the truth of the universe. They determined that each party should take turns to state the efforts they had put forth to obtain the highest truth and the sources which they had use to assure that it was as high, and as true, as that party professed it to be. Each party only had a brief time to explain themselves, because all knew the tendency of all present to wax eloquent about all things and to argue for hours over the most insignificant.
First to speak was the delegate from the tribal religions – the shamanistic, animistic, and similar traditions. Rising powerfully, and wearing a face of boldness, the speaker proclaimed, “We have followed the counsel of the spirits with all of our heart. We have given the best of our crops, the best of our animals, and the best of our time to them in order to appease them and to retain the joy of harmony with them. We do nothing to harm the natural world and never waste anything that the earth gives to us. We respect the wives, land, and property of all our neighbors, and do no unnecessary harm to anything. We have gotten our counsel from the spirits of our ancestors who have died and gone beyond as they have entered our priests, the counsel of the spirits as they have entered our priests, and from the whisperings of our mother – from earth – as she has revealed to us the way to live with in her.
As the tribal delegate became seated next to speak was the delegate from Hinduism. Standing fluidly , and wearing and expression of deep wisdom, they pronounced, “We have received, by the influence of the gods upon the minds of mortals the holy writings and have followed them to the letter, as well as revering the teachings of all gurus and priests. Through all these we have seen the innumerable gods and goddesses that rule in the world. Through these we have seen the one Uncaused Cause that exists behind them, within them, and within all things – including us. We have sacrificed our best horses, our bodies, and our time in order to go beyond the cycle of death of woe and have meditated for hours to realize the illusionary nature of the world and our inherent godness. We do nothing corruptive and regard deep thought as the most auspicious.”
Beyond Form or Formlessness: A Crisp Introduction to Buddhism
on Feb 13 in Religion by T.M. CoalRecently I was listening to a well studied, and kind, Christian speaker that was teaching people about truth who said, albeit politely, that Buddhist writings talk in circles and cannot be understood. This is very unfortunate because even though at times Buddhists write in a complex, and hard to understand, way their teachings are very deep and practical. The speaker quoted the following verse to prove his point:
“The realization that undifferentiated emptiness is the sole absolute truth. Nirvana therefore is that mental state in which one realizes that all things are really non-existent.”
In order to see if his claims hold true, we are going to analyze this verse however we are going to do so by applying Buddhist understanding to the text and not a Christian understanding.
Before we begin to look at the statement we are first going to look at the foundations of Buddhism and some of the concepts it has about reality. After this we will try to look at the words through the eyes of the writer and give them the meaning closer to what writer intended, or at least in the same vein of thought. What we will not do is look at the words through our western philosophical and religious systems, judge it by our current understanding, or apply our personal definitions to them. Those who judge something without understanding it are not wise and doom themselves, as well as those they teach, to great misunderstanding and illusion.
One cannot understand this verse without first understanding Buddhism and the first step to doing that is to look at the story about the life of its founder. As with most all ancient religions there are many different stories and schools of thought that have blossomed from the ideas and life of the founder. This then is not an all encompassing treatise on the ultimate nature of Buddhism, it is the understanding of Buddhism that I have gleaned from the study of Buddhist I have been conducting from some time now. As always never accept one voice, or book, as the ultimate authority about everything or anything. One cannot study and eat apples and know the flavor of oranges, only oranges can reveal to you the flavor of oranges — not books or growers of oranges can do that. We each need to be always open and always seeking if we are ever going to have right understanding.
A Drop of Truth
on Jan 23 in Philosophy by T.M. CoalTruth is and while we are here, those who care enough, seek to find it. Once found, it must be utilized every moment or your words and actions will be full of lies.
As touching upon the essence of “Truth” itself I would briefly like to share a few things I have gathered in my search for “Truth”.
1) Truth is not a single point.–this one seems to be a hard one for man to grasp. We want to make
the part of truth we have discovered the “only” truth for whatever reason and in so doing we miss out on seeing other facets of this lovely gem. Truth is not a circle (having only one point) rather truth is at least an ellipse (consisting of 2 or more points). It is when we forget this that we gain many evils.
2) Truth is particular— You say what is “truth”? and I will say the truth about what? When one turns “truth” into some ethereal, nebulous principle they by that fact skew it an make it unknowable. Every act, event, thing, statement, everything has it’s truths. There is the truth of jelly beans which say they are sweet and the truth of dogs which say they bark. The only overreaching and universal aspect of “Truth” is that it is not false where ever it is found.
3) Truth is both objective and subjective depending upon the particular truth being discussed–
I have set around and watched people argue endlessly over whether or not truth is “absolute” or “relative”, while the argument itself showed both parties not to have any idea about the subject they were considering. If they did they would know that truth has more than one point and there by realize that perhaps they both are right.
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