WHAT IS THIS HEAVEN ¿OR? HELL ALL ABOUT

Most of the world believe in God! Some not sure which way to go. Some are, for lack of anything better to say, atheist. Then there are those who ‘know’ God doesn’t exist! Makes me wonder if loving God is a meal ticket to eternal heaven, and not loving her/him, a ‘go directly to jail (Hell)’ card for as long as forever as the God people sip their lemonade straw on a lounge chair soaking up the sun in Nirvana?

What the Hell or Heaven is it all about? Connecting with a higher power as a possibility can be advantageous. Now, to say there is absolute proof of god sending his only son to offer salvation for being a believer in him is to have square marbles for Chinese checker holes that are for round marbles.

Anyone who says there is God without knowing how to define God, is well, to be questioned. First there is a God! Second there is NO God! And, third both are false. People’s experience with love, as the most important personal experience in the world, is at great variance from person to person. What’s popular is for everyone using the word love, and have entirely different meanings than the one who has become love as their very being.

Through love you shall know God. With less than a complete love within yourself, you can ‘believe’ in God even without knowing exactly what that means. People ‘believe’ in anything for a fear that, in the case of the unknown stalking you in the dark, has no probable basis in reality. On the other end, a ‘belief’ in something that may exist, and giving you a cushion of comfort, is at least pseudo real if indeed it does pacify you.

 Why not just be open to receive and give with no expectation of return of anything? Life and love want to survive. Life and love is a teacher of itself and beyond. Can anyone really know who you are, especially if you don’t? Take away all words, including God, and there is the answer. An atheist doesn’t believe in God, but do they ‘know’ whether there is a God or not? Like the ‘believer’ in God, they are a non believer which makes them a ‘believer’ who doesn’t know one way or the other. To know ‘God’ is to be free of all descriptions, and be receptive - no believing one way or the other necessary.

¿IS GOD A FALSE RUMOR?

Until there were ‘Religion Salesmen’ (i.e. priests) there was no God, and believe it or not, no atheists. Ancient man living in a modern world with it’s technical marvels has encouraged the fear driven to listen to the fear driven apostles of parroting this religion or that one, in part for an easy way to make a living. Until the age of 17, I considered for a second to accept the mission of a ‘religion salesman’ until I examined all aspects of it, and realized that there were much brighter contemporary authors of love, compassion and positivity.

To be free to choose the highest roads in life are never roads that anyone else has traveled. We are all unique, and even though most ignore the opportunities available to grow into a more Buddha or Christlike state, never has there been more in high consciousness on earth who can talk of what they found to work for them. The ‘parrot religions’ (in fact they all are) provide a small glimpse of the joys of life, but are filled with the ‘horrors’of thousands of years which are being ‘dragged’ into this century by the greedy and selfish using the ignorant, naive young to do the dirty work of wars.

Everywhere you turn ‘religion salesmen’ have set up shop called temples, churches, mosques, etc., to read from the holy books and create guilt for the unquestioning but where the ‘salesmen’ salivate for more and more tithing. Truth never comes out of a book new or old but from inside a quiet mind and loving heart - the only scriptures needed are therein. Giving away your power of self determination to others is the real ‘sin’. Slick, seeming well meaning spinners and twisters of words from holy books that were created in ancient times by men who were uneducated compared to the more intelligent today is not energy of the light but of the dark. God, according to the salesmen is always out there, rarely emphasizing that god is really a ‘godliness’ of love and awareness of the higher aspects of living from within you.

Stop living with rumors. For centuries they have been passed through so many who themselves are ignorant. Truth cannot be passed verbally. The ‘god’ talked about has been false. Surrendering to a ‘false god’when seeing that the ‘god’ is false is the just poppycock. Forget about your ideas of god, and look within, in silence and quiet. Be open to consciousness then, where all thoughts slow down where truth can be seen. Where there is no ego or effort, the sweet surrender happens to a godliness of joy, happiness, excitement and all the divine in vibration. Why miss the full view of the divine godliness within. Call it the Christness or Buddhaness. Words are not enough to describe the ‘fragrance of godliness’. 

GOD IS A 'HOMO'

Someone called me a homo, and I kind of took it as a compliment! The word is an illusion to most of the world, just as most people’s definition of God is. An illusion word calling another illusion word an illusion? Pretty silly if you ask me! Lot a hullabaloo about a lot of words that most of the world has no idea of and it doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Healthy people have no negative emotional reaction to any word. Unhealthy minds need to let go of any issues with any word. People are controlled by attachment to words, especially labels be they religious, political, or personal. I have found that most are controlled by one to three words particularly when used at certain times. This seems to be the situation remarkably in this new world of high technology but fragile ‘peek-a-boo’ consciousness. People are controlled by what society, and the mass media of the moment says without taking individual control over their response/reactions.

Words without knowing their intent, have little or no meaning, but are left to individual’s perception. People in a positive frame of mind will have quite a different view than those with a self critical, judgmental outlook. Usually it’s never about one ‘socially non accepted’ word, if truth be known, but quite a bevy of other words fragile to some reactive human minds. Always the polar opposite of personal meaning to words is indicative of where your inner development is. Look at the big picture of how many billions probably have no opinion of any word before becoming attached to letting a negative perception control you.

Mass unconsciousness controls millions of people, but your individual sense of reason, awareness, and self love needs to seek paths to stand above that control. Walk the high road, as well as walk among those who also are discerning enough to do likewise. Always look for the positive values in all situation without ignoring a natural feeling or why it’s there such as if it’s a feeling programmed in you by another or society. Living in awareness and discernment are divine tools of life to climb the ladder of self evolution. All words can be used as having a neutral meaning or even the fragrance of positivity, it’s up to individual perception that hopefully looks at the ‘godliness’ of the gift of speech, hearing, and conversion to the highest interpretation.

SAVED FROM 'JESUS'

Pimping Jesus for the gain of eternal heaven is enough to bring Jesus back to denounce all religions. Christ ‘in spirit’ might be eternal life, but not in the physical. ‘Jesus the Christ’ is an allegorical spiritual story to set a road map for individual and collective life, and not meant to be attached to as a physical happening.

What happens when ‘Jesus’ returns to close the doors of all places of worship, and to admonish those who’ve made him into some ‘rock star’ rather than look at his number one message, ‘to love thyself with all the heart, body, mind, and soul, and to let arise the Christ nature within, whatever name it may go by? Man, has made the myth of Jesus, that was meant allegorically to teach humankind the higher values of life, into a reason to manipulate and control a naive humanity. Loving the Jesus in the story is wonderful, but it was never meant to reach the pinnacles of ‘love’s possibilities’. The path to ‘Christ-hood’ is a pathless path that no one can do for anyone. It’s a path of the alone into the alone. In that space, one can, by being aware and in the heart, see the ‘Christlike’ being within, and be a mirror to give others hope to seek their own path.

A Christ would never ever agree to the wars of mankind as well as those who sat worshiping him while their sons, dads, daughters, mothers and friends went to war for any reason other than as a last resort to protect themselves and loved ones lives. A ‘christ’ is a Buddha or sun to nourish all of life with love and compassion. To see a physical Jesus, Muhammed, Buddha, Savior, or any Saint is merely a delusion fomented by the ‘crafty, lower spiritual’ to stroke their egos while thinking they have elevated themselves with those perceived as lower.

No one can see a ‘god’, and no one can see a ‘god’ come down, or up in human form. Fears create life with but the shadow or illusion of love that merely tricks the mind wherever it looks while attached to the human perceptions of reality, and not from the higher consciousness of the spirit. Jesus is a representation of the spirit of life and love, not a literal idol to worship. Love yourself’s spirit, and be open to live life in ways that nourish it.

¿DO YOU HAVE A RELIGIOUS PACIFIER?

A pacifier is a rubber, plastic, or silicone nipple given to an infant or other young child to suck upon. In life for adults, religions act as a ‘safety valve’ for people with fears of life and death. Religions promise the possibility of an after life filled with miracles beyond imagination if one fulfills the requirements of the religion. Religion is a nipple of comfort for those who don’t get beyond the ‘thumb sucking’ stage to seek answers to life and love beyond what ancient religions allegedly have to offer. Nothing right or wrong with using religion as a pacifier except for its limitations.

It’s rare that a balanced, happy, loving person with very little unresolved issues spends anytime worshipping some deity, savior, messiah, or a common misinterpretation of what the word ‘God’ stands for. Religions are ‘ready made’ for those who have elements of fear, and a need for reassurance of some meaning to life and death. The mind is a willing player for promises of eternity that are reaffirmed by an authority, or the many others who seem to also accept with little questioning. In a sense, they are like prepared ‘TV dinners’ for those who don’t have time for food preparation, or will use their skills to seek how to make and learn different food concoctions.

Ready made fast food religion is convenient for the masses who don’t want to spend the time questioning, or dealing with unresolved issues that don’t seem to be have to dealt with if there is a God to just forgive. People who seriously question are not likely to attend holy services, but if they do, they will find themselves less than welcome. In a sense, questioning a belief is like a baby crying who gets a pacifier stuck in their mouth. At this time in history, religion pacifiers are necessary to provide a sense of order in society, not to mention a means to control. Leaving religion behind, and opening the door to the spiritual and conscious is to create a freedom to see life as an opportunity to experiment, learn, grow, and enjoy life’s many facets. The pathless path is both a search for deeper freedom and love while experiencing many positive tenets of any religion. Truth comes with freedom, and escape from all beliefs.

I’M TOO GAY FOR CHRISTIANS, YET TOO CHRISTIAN FOR GAYS

I play tennis.

One of the first things you learn in the game of tennis is to stay away from the area of the court known as “no man’s land.” It’s an area about halfway between the baseline and the service line where most of the shots from your opponent will land. If you stand in this treacherous spot, the balls will land at your feet, making it impossible to hit quality shots in response. The best place to be, if you actually want to hit the ball well, is just behind the baseline or closer up to the net.

Being black, gay, and Christian is also a bit of a no man’s land. It’s a place where many wouldn’t advise you to stand. People often throw verbal and even physical shots that land at your feet, and sometimes the shots take you out at the knees. As much as any gay man wouldn’t want to be in a caught dead in a place called no man’s land, I often find myself often caught in between two positions.

As much work as I’ve done to create harmony between the various points of my existence, there are some days when the completion of that work appears as close as the next star. Some days I am filled with strength, brimming with self-love and courage. But then there are times when I hear a preacher, someone who shares my vocation, proclaim that people like me are heretics. That is to be expected. What isn’t always expected is how the gay community sometimes responds. To many of them, I’m also a fake.

On the one hand, people would prefer that I was just gay. They claim that I would make it easier for them myself I just forget any idea of faith, God or prayer, because these are the tools that homophobes use to demean us. Didn’t Audre Lorde say that the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house? And here I am, using the oppressor’s toolbox to build a new, awkward dwelling. Clearly gay is an all-encompassing label, and anything that even has the appearance of being anti-gay must be stamped out. It’s a waste of time. Just be gay. Curse God and live.

On the other, I need to just suck it up and be a Christian. Submerge my humanity and become an asexual robot for Jesus, and the comfort of everyone else. How can gay and God be in the same sentence, let alone co-exist in the person? If I want to do anything in church, or let alone preach, I should be willing to become an inhuman vessel that only concerns himself with the things of God. Even the gays who hate church “know” that you can’t be a real Christian if you claim to be gay. The Bible says so, and it’s just what we know to be true. God’s way doesn’t allow for it.

So, here I am, stuck betwixt and between. Too gay for the Christians, yet too Christian for the gays. At large, the church and the black gay community both agree on one thing: someone like me is a fraud. At best, I’m a confused people pleaser, trying my best to juggle all the parts of my life. At worst, I’m a liar, a trickster that is trying to play both sides of the fence to my own benefit.

Both of those assumptions are painful. No man’s land is an awkward, and lonesome, place to be.

Rarely does anyone, from either side of this no man’s land, ask how I came to my conclusions. I often don’t get to explain that my faith is the reason that I decided to break off the closet door that caged me. The conversations that I’ve had about my extensive theological education and research into biblical views on sexuality seem to be of no concern to either side. My knowledge of Greek, Hebrew, or human sexuality means nothing. And no, I don’t expect a lecture on the topic to change someone’s mind, but perhaps, just maybe, this decision is one that took painstaking consideration, study, and yes, prayer?

For two sides that are constantly at war, the Black Church and the black gay community, they tend to have one unfortunate trait in common: placing people in boxes. Boxes are awful places to be, and are too closely related to closets for comfort. Boxes work to obscure the truth that we are all multifaceted beings. Only inanimate things, or dead people, should be placed in boxes.

But I’m convinced that this no man’s land of negative assumptions and side-eyes is a worthy position to be in. One of the biggest motivators in coming to grips with my sexuality was also by drive to be authentically myself, regardless of the opinions that others had of me. I wanted to clear a path not only for others to be authentic, but myself as well. No one, Christian, gay, or otherwise, should be placed in a box of either/or when it comes to expressing their life.

This is why I write and educate whenever possible. Not to make people come to church, or to pass some gay test, but to clear a path for people to be all of who they are. I’m gay. I’m Christian. I’m black. I’m all of it, none of it shuts off, and no one aspect eliminates the other to be true.

So yes, this territory is a bit of a no man’s land. But by embracing it, I’m becoming more of an all-court player. The different aspects of my life aren’t at war with each other. Despite the clamor from the baseline and of Christianity and the forecourt of the gay community, I can navigate all areas. And this, after all, is the point. Being all of who I am, encouraging people to be all of they are.

Besides, after a while you learn how to pick those difficult shots up off of your feet and return some great shots of your own.

SOURCE: MUSED MAG

LESS JESUS, MORE CHRIST THIS X-MAS SEASON

Christmas is an inspiring holiday season to welcome in the earth’s rest, reflection period before ‘Springing’ forward to the rising of Spring and Summer. The beliefs of religions are riddled with truths for people centuries ago, and some that are current, but also with many suggestions that are no longer as relevant as many contemporary writers suggest. Religions are filled with superstition, and suggestions of ‘voo doo’.  Being ‘Christ-like’ is to get the message of the bible. Writers may have been of good intent, and decided to use analogies and parables for the masses. Certainly if they could spend a few days here now they would clearly agree.

‘Mas’ is more – more Christ which is for all of humanity. What it means again is being more conscious and loving. The so called ‘Second coming’ really means ‘you’ coming to accept a godliness while always moving to a higher consciousness. Making Jesus an idol through worshiping him, when it’s an archetype to stimulate forms of higher behavior is to miss the ‘mark’ and create an intermediary (priest, pastor) who encourages thinking that an illusory figure is real. Focus on consciousness calling it Christ consciousness if it suits you, but detach from any addiction to the bible or holy books which are filled with ancient language, as well as attempt to change the wording to today's vernacular.

No holy book mentions the gift of laughter. No holy book suggest that love making between two people can, and does raise consciousness. No holy book suggests using the techniques of meditation or yoga to raise consciousness. Celebrate ‘Christmas’ with the intent to let go of all others words and be ‘more (mas) filled with consciousness and love (Christ). No one needs to follow anyone’s words to rise in high consciousness especially if told not doing results in eternal hell! All religions are really the same ‘one religion’ with different names and religious salesmen proselytizing theirs as ‘the only one’. They are just a mask from knowing the real divine you! The image of Jesus is used to divert you from seeing that through consciousness you will see you can be a Christ! That won’t make anyone money, and cause them to lose control over you!

SPIRITUAL CONSTIPATION

It’s time to impregnate the mind and heart with a more positive, compassionate source of energy. Ignorance, belief systems, fears, egos, negativity have all collected to entrap the ‘free flowing’ of streams of love and light. The general public is starved from the possibilities of people seeking their ‘own’ spiritual awakening instead memorizing words that have been reinterpreted many times from centuries ago. People are constipated in their minds and hearts from not trusting their own seeking, and manifestations coming from experience, common sense, and a deep personal love within themselves.

Many on a spiritual path, get constipated in the head with all kinds of knowledge that seems to not let go into manifesting it into the real world of action. To miss a ‘path of life’ to evolve into a higher consciousness, particularly those living in today’s wonderful developing parts of the world, is a divine opportunity thrown away. It is the good fortune of everyone to follow a spiritual path while letting go of both that which hurt us, as well as letting go of memories that don’t propel us on that life enriching path. Remember, to be free of all limitations, especially letting go of ‘belief systems’ that may have got you to the point of walking rather than flying into the mysterious realms of consciousness. All ‘limitations’ must be ‘killed’ for your quest into the space of godliness.

SPIRITUAL (DIS)HARMONY

Being ‘harmoniously connected’ with people has a lot to do with you being in high consciousness. However, there are always ‘outside forces’ testing everyday harmony for reasons that amount to manipulation, domination, and control of you, and as many billions as possible for accumulation ($) purposes. Politicians, religion salesmen, ‘money shufflers’ and the like, have been around since recorded history looking to convince you how they are going to benefit you, and your life. Perhaps they invented the phrase ‘trust me’?! We are all meant from birth to be in harmony throughout our lives,  but most lose that path at an early age never to get but glimpses of it as life unfolds.

It’s only natural to spend a good portion of our lives looking for love, but most find it only falling through their fingers like sand on a beach. Self misery has led, for thousands of years, man to open ‘misery cure shops’ called churches, temples, mosques, etc. to rectify what they have learned to perpetuate through fear and guilt. If people are not miserable, there is no reason to attend the ‘services’ offered by the ‘charlatans in the name of some ‘god or allah’ to alleviate that which they collectively have stoked the coals of.

Why take ‘medicine’ that you don’t need? Religion, with it’s ancient scripture is like a decades old bottle of medicine that has extended it’s useful life, but is no more than a ‘placebo’, or a pill for the imagination. Religion salesmen have set up shops by the hundreds of thousands to pump out fear, and guilt wrapped in ‘niceties’ to allure the ‘sheeple’ into their shearing stalls. Only love can bring you the bliss and joy that comes not in words but in the beauty of silence. Pushing words that some alleged scribe wrote centuries ago, doesn’t fit any need but one conjured up by the peddlers of ‘religion snake oil cures’ that have no effect but a very temporary fix that needs endless fix’s by the ‘representative of god’.

Obviously, if you are healthy, you have nothing to do with the Doctor. If you are mentally healthy, you have nothing to do with the psychological shrinks. And, if you are spiritually in harmony with yourself, you have no need for the ancient medical box peddled by the ‘religion salesman’. Doctors, Psychologists, and religion establishments are sometimes needed for those who are sick, and have little hope of curing themselves. 

Religions have been a major part of creating ‘hell on earth’ - that’s their secret! You then are told to come to them for some ‘hypothetical’ solution that creates more spiritual disharmony, then back and forth. The path of a Jesus or Buddha is alone seeking the love within. Spiritual harmony comes from no one but within you!

SCRIPTURES ARE MEANINGLESS

The quality of your life has ‘nothing’ to do with your ability to quote scriptures, yet there’s a lot of that going on out there! Memorizing is becoming more and more a practice that is losing necessity in this world of the 21st century. I write a fair amount of thoughts that could be quoted, but I have NO interest in whether someone does it or not, and certainly none that would be an affront to others when used someday as ‘gospel’. Surely, those alleged characters quoted in the holy books, would have NO MEMORY of having said what’s attributed to them even days later, truth be known.

If all those characters in the bible or other holy books were alive today, they would be aghast at what they were quoted as saying. That which was written centuries and millenniums ago could not be read then by 99% of the masses for obvious reasons, and regardless is too edited over the centuries by many to be anything but ‘chopped up’ ideas that in the end are fruitless to try and understand when so many thinkers and writers minds today are far more advanced and useful. Besides, meditation is scientifically the most valuable tool for human growth, and is never mentioned in the books.

It’s time to move on and rise in the moment instead of groveling in what will never free the mind to rise above the past’s misinformation and misquoting that is misinterpreted anyway. People have ‘brains’ that must be fresh and clear with discernment abilities to individually create a healthier path through life. All ‘scriptures’ are in the heart beyond words. Words are just pointers that must be ‘clear’, and understandable to the recipient. Avoid people that need to quote for they are prisoners of the past, and their personal fears and demons. Time to ‘let go’ of ancient ‘reedited’ rhetoric! In freedom, love is found!

WHEN BELIEF IS POISONOUS...

From childhood we are made to be afraid of the eternal hell where you will be thrown into fire, alive, and you will burn but you will not die. The ‘belief itself’ means that you will have all the pleasures of life, and be safe from this eternal hell. Believe and you are with God; doubt and you are on the side of the devil.  Belief is so simple, particularly for the young mind. There is little choice but to believe rather than doubt and risk your life. It is ‘exploitation’ of children and a molestation of the mind. That impressionable mind of a youngster is throughout life reminded to not doubt, but believe and have faith. Belief and faith have a place in daily life, but not as a reminder that hell awaits for those who doubt. Seek to uncover life’s mysteries, and possibly to know where belief and faith is no longer necessary. In this wonderful time, there is easy access to information that leads to truth. Open your heart and let love in to kill all poisons of those selling beliefs. Truth has no agenda!  

DARK SIDE OF FAITH

Faith is good except in the face of facts! However to keep the faith, it's best to ignore the facts! Faith in the tenets of any religion can be life changing, and certainly better than a despairing view of life. However, a persons faith when the facts or truth is available makes little sense. ‘Faith’ is in a certain teaching, generally from ancient times. Miracles, purported facts at the time, some wise words, your interpretation, etc., are aspects that make many followers of a system, and culture, to have a guideline of rules for most within that society. Knowing is stronger than any belief or faith. Why hope or have faith in what is known. Does it make sense to say ‘you have faith’ in what or whom you love, if it’s beyond doubt? If a couple is fully merged in love with transparent communication, doubt is not there. No doubt means belief or faith is not necessary.

All myths have a element of truth, then becoming embellished in time, and spun by those who elect to pass on the beliefs. Followers of religions over time invent things that are pure fabrications. Nearly all religion characters in holy books have no credible historical evidence of having existed. Faith today in myths when there are so many real mysteries to be discovered, are limiting to the joys of exploring and creating higher states of consciousness on your own. In the Christian religion people believe in the miracles, take then away, and the belief in Jesus declines into wanting to know the facts. For centuries, religions have been making promises, none of them happen, or are going to. The ‘religion salesmen’ have been and continue to be lying, promising, and peddling medicine to your minds. You are simply wasting your life to not pursue the facts, and at the same time making sure you have love of yourself, compassion for others, and an openness to question as well as being open to be questioned. Faith which does not doubt is dead faith.

RELIGIOHOLICS

Believing that you have the sole, absolute truth is a sign of unresolved fears and insecurities. Recovery from religioholism is a long, and often harrowing process of detachment from trying to dictate other people's lives and personal practice to a purported, infallible belief system.  Such people are never content with their own beliefs and values as lived by themselves, but demand that their whole families, communities, nations and even the whole world must follow the same way under penalty of censure, banishment, punishment, torture, death and/or eternal damnation.

Detoxification is the physiological, or psychological removal of toxic substances from a living organism. Religion is a type of dependence inducing ‘potion’, in a way like alcohol or drugs. The majority are light, moderate, to no ‘consumers’ of a religion system. Billions do it. Drugs or alcohol may have some psychological benefits, and yet at the same time create some physical health problems, and a general price to pay. Indifferent to that, billions find enough satisfaction to become somewhat tolerant, oblivious, or apathetic to the ‘prices to pay’.

Religion is a step for the sick to help purge themselves of a misfortunate past, but is not a vehicle to become attached to falling in love with. In a sense, religion is a rehab to set you free of the ‘demons’ that created habitual addictions. Staying in a religion ‘ad infinitum’ is to not ‘give up the nipple’ that sustains one until ready for what’s needed to grow. The so called ‘God’ doesn’t follow any religion, nor do ‘you’ need to endlessly. Any life hereafter doesn’t have scriptures but is responsive to the vulnerable heart vibration and your open innocence of awareness. Time to stop ‘mind invasions’, and open the heart and awareness to follow your own path of divine godliness.

LOVE CANCELS RELIGION

Love is better than any religion! No, not puppy love or ‘love with strings’, but a real, deep, authentic love. Just because someone can shoot a basketball, doesn’t mean they can be a professional player. The majority experience some degree of love, even if it’s with their dog or cats. All wives or husbands, boyfriends or girlfriends are quick to acknowledge love for their partner. Love is an easy emotion to obtain, and yet fizzle to a memory as well as occasional spurts of feeling. That’s not the love that cancels attachment to any religion. Of course, the mind may cancel religion, most likely before it’s ‘embedded’.

A friend of mine talks about his partner constantly complaining about his life and wanting to move to a new country and my question to him was ‘why doesn’t he just do it’? He said that his partner was too attached to his family and the routine that is his life. It’s the same thing with religion, once ‘embedded’ there is little hope to question the ‘religion’, and seek better answers which are always rationalized away. The fear of the ‘unknown’ often gives birth to uncomfortable complacency. This is ‘YOUR LIFE RIGHT NOW’! Better options start with seeking them!

My clear experience is that when love with another rises to a peak where the ‘false’you is ‘gone’, and both are of one mind and heart, there is a permanent change. Part of that change is to see that you and your experiences are focused on the highest expression especially the emotional, spiritual, and general being. In that state, if you had been attached to a religion, it disappears. You become the ‘vehicle’ for a religiousness that is apart from anyone else’s words; call it perhaps a ‘spiritual high’.

There are two paths to an enlightened consciousness. One path is through meditation, the other through love, or what I call lovitation’. Either path rarely reaches its peaks, as the ‘seeker’settles into an ‘ego satisfaction’that falls short only leaving them with glimpses of what could be. It is not possible to experience the bliss and joy of the showering of meditation, or deep love if attached to ANYTHING, and that includes ‘ideologies or religion’. Before the real can be seen, the false needs to be ‘let go’ of. To ‘see’ is arduous judging from the billions who ‘lock step’ to religions. Seek to be in your heart, and with awareness as well as ‘discernment’ to climb out of ‘programming’.It’s a breeze once you reach the level of ‘intelligence’!

RELIGION SHOULDN'T BE AN EXCUSE FOR DISCRIMINATION

Following the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” in late 2010 and the successful transition to open service for gay, lesbian, and bisexual service members in 2011, many assumed that enshrined discrimination against LGBT people was on its way out.

But some opponents of LGBT equality in Congress have refused to give up the fight. Now that they could no longer keep lesbians, gay men, and bisexual people from serving openly in the military, they have shifted gears. What is their new strategy? To misuse religious liberty as a license to discriminate.

Religious liberty is one of our nation’s most cherished values, and something that the American Civil Liberties Union has fought to safeguard since our founding nearly a century ago. It guarantees us the freedom to hold any belief we choose and the right to act on our religious beliefs — but it does not allow us to harm or discriminate against others.

We’ve seen this play out over the past several years during the annual debate on the defense bill — known as the National Defense Authorization Act — in Congress. Those most opposed to DADT repeal and open service have sought to authorize discrimination against certain service members based on their sexual orientation under the guise of religious freedom. Last year then-representative Todd Akin, whose remarks that pregnancy cannot result from a “legitimate rape” became infamous during the 2012 election campaign, successfully added an amendment that required accommodation of all beliefs of members of the armed forces “concerning the appropriate and inappropriate expression of human sexuality,” which could have required that the military turn a blind eye to harassment and discrimination.

Thankfully, this direct attack on open service was not included in the final version of the defense bill that was sent to President Obama for his signature. And while Akin is no longer in Congress, these efforts to enshrine discrimination in the military have a new champion in Rep. Tim Huelskamp and the misnamed Military Religious Freedom Protection Act, which would give a green light to discriminate against lesbian, gay, and bisexual service members.

These anti-LGBT attacks are a naked attempt to give license to discrimination.  These efforts are part of a broader trend that opponents of LGBT equality are employing with increasing frequency. As LGBT people gain greater equality under the law — at the local, state, and, federal levels — opponents argue that because of their religious beliefs, they need to be given special authorization to break the law and discriminate. For example, some business owners have refused to serve same-sex couples who want to buy flowers or a cake to celebrate their relationships. These businesses claim they should not have to serve gay couples because they have a religious objection to allowing same-sex couples to marry or form civil unions. Likewise, we are seeing a renewed push to expand religious exemptions to laws designed to end discrimination and ensure access to health care.

It is for this reason that the ACLU as well as a number of LGBT legal organizations including Lambda Legal, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and the Transgender Law Center expressed serious concerns about the sweeping scope of the religious exemption in the Employment Non-Discrimination Act when the legislation was reintroduced in Congress last month. Given that only 16 states have workplace nondiscrimination laws that are fully inclusive of LGBT people, the need for ENDA and the importance of it to LGBT people across the country is without question, and we continue to fight for its passage.

However, ENDA’s current sweeping, unprecedented exemption for religiously affiliated organizations — far beyond churches, synagogues, and mosques — could provide a blank check to engage in employment discrimination against LGBT people, potentially allowing, for example, a religiously affiliated hospital to fire a transgender doctor or a religiously affiliated university to terminate a gay groundskeeper. The exemption gives a stamp of legitimacy to LGBT discrimination that our civil rights laws have never given to discrimination based on an individual's race, sex, national origin, age, or disability. This is not acceptable, and ENDA’s religious exemption must be narrowed.

Now is the time for the LGBT community to make clear that contorting religious liberty into a right to discriminate and harm is incompatible with basic fairness and equality under the law. Today, discrimination against individuals based on their race, sex, national origin, age, or disability is almost universally seen as unacceptable. We did not arrive at this point in a vacuum. This discrimination is seen as unacceptable because the American people, our elected leaders, and the courts have made it so. Now, at this critical and defining moment in our nation’s history, is the time to do the same with discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

IAN THOMPSON is a legislative representative on issues related to LGBT rights in the ACLU's Washington legislative office and can be reached on Twitter @iantDC.

SOURCE: ADVOCATE

¡RELIGION MOLESTS THE HOMOSEXUAL MIND!

No one’s more vulnerable than homosexual when it comes to religion (I might be bias here but hey this blogger is homosexual), we are unprotected from trauma, fears, and misinformation that religion provide. In a sense we are being ‘bullied’ from the pulpits EVERY Sunday. The young male/female is naive, and vulnerable to the positive or negative imprints that we carry through life. Later we in turn pass on our experience. If that experience was somewhat negative, through long, hard rehabilitation we may be able to move beyond the shackles of what left us off the ‘positive road’ of life.

Many religions know that if they ‘get’ a gay child early enough, the can ‘embed’ them with their ‘doctrine’forever in the name of ‘saving them’. Leaders of any religion are really ‘holy book salesmen’ that have spent thousands of hours, usually at an indoctrination establishment sometimes called a ‘religion college’ learning their ‘craft’. My experience is that the young who go into this profession, are well intended, but don’t see or desire the ‘freedoms’ and unquestioning value that other options allow to assist people. These ‘wannabe’ messengers of god need both be ‘saved from religion’ as well as to consider how they can save gay men and women from this ‘holy indoctrination’.

Religion salesmen, for all their good intentions, and compassionate things they do, are hucksters and ‘snake oil salesmen’ for ancient moral opinions given to people of that time. Humans have existed for much more than hundreds of thousands of years, and not the last three to six thousand like these ‘professional spinners of facts’ regurgitate to humanity, and in particular to the homosexuals within society.

Misleading anyone, especially with what you purport to be the truth with a God’s sanction is being a ‘devil in disguise’! It’s abominable to mislead a person with a vulnerable mindset, who likely fears the unknown, and wants to hear an authority figure assure them of the ‘only’ safe behavioral route to follow is to be ‘saved’. Holders of the ‘holy word’ of any book, in a sense, are self selected policemen of God and ‘holy rumor spreaders’! The only real policeman is within you that has nothing to do with any religion. It’s time to kick out the rumors, passed down for centuries, where the sun don’t shine forever. We homosexuals of the universe have within us the ability to know and love ourselves. No one knows the answers to your trip through the ‘journey’.

ALL YOU NEED IS SILENCE & A HEART FILLED WITH LOVE

Millions of people have been ‘defrocked’ of their ability to ‘think’ outside of the pablum they’ve been ‘hardwired’ with. Thinking without any ‘belief’ is to stand tall above the programmed inoculated masses who run their lives on false words from a God who doesn’t even speak one word. The bible, Quran, Torah, Bhagavad Gita, or any holy book is filled with ancient rhetoric by men, some of which is inspired, but needing ‘cherry picking’ through the negative or non sensible dictums. Amazingly in this technologically evolved world with trillions spent on education that not one individual has ‘cleaned up’ any holy book to be a positive, inspiring compilation of direction for human evolvement.

Each year around winter time, people are terrorized by possible death if they don’t get a flu shot to avoid the ‘evil flu’. The ‘holy books’ likewise are used as an inoculating devise to wash the brain of it’s ability to think critically with common sense, experience, and use intuition beyond what they have been to their fears of death.

Those who really love, and become that overflowing being of love capable of manifesting it completely, have no need to believe in a god or not, or being an atheist. An inner silence takes over where one’s very nature is breathing love, especially seen and felt by those capable of receiving. It doesn’t matter who comes close to you, the inner vibe of love silently fills you into a sense of warmth and joy. Love has no if’s or buts of conditions, in fact it’s not dependent at all on ‘beliefs’! Is there a god or is there not? Love is a truth that doesn’t need belief or faith if it is in the deepest core of your being. There are no arguments of it as life’s greatest existence.

‘Beliefs’ in a god or no god forever creates a polarity of differences. Not the same with love. You can intellectually say you love, or there is god or not, but the effort is shallow unless love becomes your very nature. Love is not a belief unless it’s conditional. Unconditional love is a state of being that is not dependent on any one other being, but the translucent heart within you. Love is the only hope in the world as it can be reached and experienced by all.

Ask yourself, why you go on giving love, when you don’t have it in the first place?!Likewise talk of your ‘belief’ in god when you don’t know what ‘god’ really is! All you need is silence, and a heart filled with love.

¿GOD, WHERE ARE YOU?

Humans are far outnumbered by other species, yet as of that small population, we are the only ones with a mind that agrees in a God that is defined by everyone somewhat differently, or as a word that has no definition because of the ‘belief’that there is not one to define. Both are correct, in that there is no definition that can be put into a ‘box’for everyone to agree on, even as more than 99%+ of life doesn't have a mind to pose the question.

Now, in recent times, there seems to be a lot of questioning as to whether there is a ‘father god’, or is god a ‘she’, or even both, or...? The question among some is why the questions? Certainly a God wouldn't need to believe in his or her existence! Why should there be so much squabbling over the whole idea of ‘is or isn't ? The reality is when walking this road of life floating in space among millions of galaxies; mother earth is just another spec in space where we were born at this time to be in awe that we are here through thick and thin experiencing every possibility from life to death. Not to forget the in between challenges from suffering to differing realizations of an emotion we identify as love.

Whichever way you go, there is one thing for certain and that is ‘love rules’, but only if you create the harmony for it. God can be undefined, or if you choose, define it as you believe, but love is easier to find and experience! All life on earth knows the feeling of love whether we can hear their expression or not. Everything in life to flourish must find a ‘position of harmony’ be it with existence and/or with someone you feel grateful for having in your life. Seek love, and finders will be keepers!

RELIGION [FREE RANGE]

Chickens raised in little wire cages, with no room to express themselves, have the best living environment to make the most money for their handlers. Control and manipulation of environments is allegedly more productive for the ‘mega farmer’ to control his animal product to make the harvest the best value to keep the business going as long as the consumer chicken hawks will slobber on anything no matter how it got to the plate, even if the dumb chicken doesn’t know any better. Best results necessitate letting the ‘victims’ know who’s boss while they are unaware and seemingly helpless to stand up for themselves.

‘Ride yourself’, free of any programs by religions, politics, society, or anyone, and with awareness! Nothing else is going to help you but awareness! You must accept the winters with the summers, or the ups with the downs. Allowing yourself to be in someone else’s ‘box’, be they dead or alive, is to be void (chicken) or the courage to roam the free range with an open mind. To grow one has to go through many pains, fears, and agonies because you have been beholden to a certain culture. Culture makes you not grow, and likes to keep you ‘unwise’.

Grown-up, free minds are dangerous to society because they will slowly begin to see the stupidities of all societies traps of the mind. The world is now ‘flat’ where slowly we need to both keep our individuality but be one whole with each other. The phrase New World Order or NWO, has become a thing to avoid, but only when, and where individual freedoms of expression are thwarted by fear of punishment. Freedom to be you at your ‘freest best’ is the greatest gift you can enjoy. Spread your wings to fly, and walk on the ground with head held high in celebration of your freedom!

BE ANTI BELIEF N' FAITH

Being ‘religious’ is a blessing! Being part of any religion is to sell yourself, and purpose in life short! Religions are a box, and have a lid on the possibilities that are available for you who are courageous enough to fly to the heights of consciousness where the mysteries of life, and love are stored. Until you escape from the box of any religion, or denial of the spiritual, you are a slave to ‘dead men’s words that have nothing to do with ‘god’ or godliness but to subjugate you to the guilt, and fears that you conjure up all around you. To be religious is a beautiful thing - being part of a religion endlessly is ugly given the alternative of following blissfulness.

To be religious to me means to find enjoyment in love and life. Let religiousness be a thankfulness to being in existence with it’s opportunities of love, joy, laughter, and the ability to grow in consciousness. It leaves one in awe, and with the desire to give back in gratefulness to all of life and love.

God would have committed suicide if s/he had seen the ‘holy scriptures’ allegedly written by him just out of embarrassment. Religions are dogmatic with threats of eternal hell if seen stepping outside of the ‘box’ of their dictums. You must ‘believe’ in their scriptures and have faith that they are ‘God’s word’. I am against belief and faith where one has the possibility of ‘knowing’. It won’t be long before someone comes out with a ‘pill’that allows one to ‘believe’. To know must be from your own experience. Only the ‘blind’believes there is light - those who can see - know. If you are blind - then believe there is light.

Why be tethered to the chains of a claimed holy man who didn’t even write what is in the scriptures, let alone having credible evidence that he even existed. Of course, millions, billions, have belief and faith in what hundreds of men have put into writing with no consultation with the alleged source as to what he spoke. People are gullible and blithering idiots to at some point not ‘look beyond’. The ‘takeover’ of the human mind is easy when the people are too busy to challenge the incredible inconsistencies with the ‘intelligence’of a god who knows everything.

Be your own generating station! ‘Believe’, if you must, while looking for the real answers, and have faith that they are there, but not until you personally know! That’s gratitude for the ‘godliness’of life given you! Is there a greater sin than betraying yourself, and stopping short of available knowing, with ‘believing’? Knowing comes from the power of truth within. Why stop at ‘believing’?