Action and Inaction (1)

I hesitated, whether to add this chain of posts to “Original Sin”, or to post it separately, because the two subjects are very closely related.

Perhaps from a simplistic perspective, the teaching of any religion can be summarised by a list of do’s and don’ts …

And perhaps, such simplification is unavoidable, due to the lack of desire in the majority of people to embark on a serious journey of spiritual development and intellectual inquisition, themselves …

To get on with their lives, people demand quick answers to basic questions,

Is it right to do this? what are the consequences of doing that …?

And religions, all around the world provide answers to such questions from their perspective of belief and faith, and this is their job, one can argue …

Secular societies and religionless ones, on the other hand, have their own secular laws, customs and traditions …

Their list of do’s and don’ts in this case is not believed to be god’s commandments …

But in either case, it is the humans who interpret the laws and oversee their implementation,

Whether people see this process as guidance from god or the human mind: is their choice,

This chain of post is meant to look at some of the different types of action, prohibited or obligated by religions, with the Ghita’s “he who sees the action in the inaction and the inaction in the action: is wise …” and the Qur’an’s “that deeds are in the intent”: in mind

Action and Inaction (2)

The problem with the lists of do’s and don’ts is that they encourage or perhaps require their literal understanding,

Because: in the frame of mind which seeks such simple and brief instructions: the mind needs the reassurance which mutes doubt, which is the companion of free thinking,

A number of faculties of mind are at play in this case: the trust and the security that it is capable of creating are based on choice, and influenced by karmic heritage,

Karmic heritage that is now printed on one’s psyche, after many lives of adherence to such frames of mind,

So, when literality is sought: borders are drawn and raised within the mind, within which such literality is understandable and practically applicable, without any doubt,

What happens then: the mind blinds itself from looking outside those borders, because there: doubt and challenge linger,

Upon dwelling within them: the world is reduced to them, and so is the mind,

That’s why, if an outsider calls the dwellers within them to look outside, they will not be understood, and indeed will be seen as an evil power, trying to demolish their safety and security

Action and Inaction (3)

Upon choosing to dwell in a certain confinement of action and inaction, the mind is temporarily content, while blinded to what’s happening outside its confinement,

As such, the dweller, when they see action perpetrated by others, they quickly pass it by their checks of legitimate or illegitimate, to reaffirm to themselves their self-proclaimed righteousness,

But on the other hand, their interaction with others requires of them that they engage in action, and this can often be unclassified in their understanding,

So, here comes the moment of truth:

Has their adherence to their “law” humanised them? has it taught them virtue?

If it has, their labour hasn’t been wasted, and their vision is clear, and they can rationally, or by extrapolating their law to the new territory: make a good judgement for the new moment,

And “good” in this case starts to override their borders of right and wrong, and they start to see essence …, and they thus become truly virtuous people,

If it hasn’t, you see them indulge unscrupulously in vice, and they become decadent, while believing they are pious and holy,

But their ivory towers are exposed quickly and shown to them to be actually illusory,

And to their disappointment, they find themselves at the bottom of the scale of human development in every aspect of their lives: social, political, technological …

Because all these activities leading to development can only be carried out when people cooperate and aren’t very selfish, and are honest and rational … albeit at various degrees thereof …

But “development” itself is a concept that is not adopted by everyone, and development in what? many may ask,

Here comes what is believed to be “purpose” of life into play …

A myriad of ideologies is given birth to in one’s mind immediately, when the question is asked: what is the purpose of life?

Because this can dictate the permissibility and prohibition of action …, and can dictate whether people should continue to learn new things, or to stagnate

Action and Inaction (4)

The problem with literality is that it is not standard or unique, and hence it is not universally accepted, as the staunch believers in it would like their followers to think,

The literality of the Holy Texts is based on the available dictionaries and the scholars’ knowledge of the language in which the Texts are written, and indeed on the scholars’ held values and ethe, all of which are the human edits of the Texts …

Ever since the delivery of the Books of Abrahamic religions, the theories about how they were delivered are as numerous as the scholars who have interpreted them,

From god’s finger carving them on the tablets, to god being born as a human to deliver them, and finally to sending a flying angel to deliver them …

It is only in the Hikmah that the “descent” is explained, as in the Hudood being inspired to write or to speak …

Also this is subject to people's acceptance and understanding of it ...

All because the word “descend” means different things to different people in different circumstances and at different levels of comprehension and awareness …

And we haven’t started reading the Texts yet …!

As once said on this Page, literality is in fact an interpretation adopted by an institute,

And so long as this institute has the political power, its interpretation will remain indisputable,

In fact, it is now enforced as “god’s word”

Action and Inaction (5)

As for the “purpose of life”,

All the Books, from the Far East to the West, say that it is to return to Origin/Creator … or whatever word is used …

Unfortunately, this has translated to a myriad of purposes in the lexicons of religions …

From vanishing in emptiness, to the garden of food, beverage and sex,

From the inheritance of the entire earth and the slaving of its inferior beings, to dwelling in a fancy place of everlasting abundance and happiness …

Secular and religionless people, on the other hand, seem to have nobler purposes …

The advance of sciences and knowledge, for the “betterment” of human life, and for an ongoing adventure of discovery and learning …

One shouldn’t forget, however, that when secular beliefs are purely materialistic and nihilist, the purpose of life is reduced to making money for the purpose of getting pleasure and power,

A purpose, which, although is regarded mean and materialistic by religions, in essence is not different from that of some religions, which command “worship” and abidance by their laws: in order to get those very things: money, power and pleasure; but religions and materialistic ideologies wouldn’t appreciate being likened to each other,

At the present: none of the religions can claim moral superiority over secular ideologies,

Each having a track record of cruelty, corruption, greed and carelessness about the earth and its living beings …

Although their rhetoric is idealistic …

Religions must stop telling the world that they know what god’s plan was when he created the world,

Their theories are their interpretations of their theories …

None of which can withstand a basic logical and intellectual investigation,

This is why their tempers flare out when faced with reason, and they open up their bags of accusations, and threaten to hurl you in hell and suffering, as if god informed them, to watch over you from their paradise and salvation, to have long-lasting schadenfreude from watching your eternal burning and suffering …

Tell them: thank God I will not be admitted to vanish in emptiness, or to an apes’ garden,

Or be with the company of people with little discernment …

Tell them: they are all returning to this world, as all the Books of the Far East and the West have told them,

This is where their spirit is “tested”

Action and Inaction (6)

People can’t figure out the purpose of life if they can’t know the beginning of life,

The two questions are inextricably connected,

One answers the other, and one questions the other,

So how did life begin?

No Book, from the Far East to the West has said it,

Not because god keeps secrets,

But because created or begun things can’t show or express their creation or beginning,

Conscious beings reach lower things with their conscious minds,

So, for example: an animal can sense physical things,

A human can sense physical things and envisage abstract concepts,

So, any subject of discussion falls thus in the realm of physical or abstract and essential …

It is of lack of awareness that people start telling the world why the creator, or how the big bang created the world …, and for what purpose or for what lack of purpose …

All these mental constructs and concepts are born in the mind, they develop in the mind, and vanish in it …

But the mind can bring back memories of early moments of existence,

Those can be experienced in high stages of meditation, or indeed in dreams, without much effort,

It remains for the experiencer or dreamer to be able to make “sense” of it,

But “sense” might fall in the realm of concepts and abstracts once again, and as if no memory was retrieved,

One good exercise of meditation is to practise “thinking” without words …

If this doesn’t switch off thinking all together, at least it helps the practitioner experience the oneness of thought,

All the Books from the Far East to the West say that existence as we know it is a state of duality,

Hence we witness …

Rising above the constant commotion and activity of duality: is the way to Union,

The rise cannot happen physically by refraining from experiencing duality …

All those Books prescribe mental and spiritual disciplines for coming close to Union,

If one has a need to phrase a purpose of life, this can be one

Action and Inaction (7)

When we talk about suffering and happiness or pleasure, we are bound by the vocabulary of the language being used,

And this is bound by the concepts which constitute the culture and the beliefs which are expressed in this particular language,

This fact is immediate to the translators who embark on translating books of religions and philosophy …

This is why such translations can never be free from phonetic translations (there might be a better word for this which I couldn’t find), explained in footnotes and so on …

But the essences of such words remain elusive to the translator and the reader, unless they become involved faithfully in the translated work,

If we take the concepts of suffering and pleasure to an abstract level, based on what came in the Books of religions, and based on one’s own experiences: perhaps the better words pointing to them nowadays would be: need and satisfaction of need,

Thus, both words point more accurately to the state of duality, than simply saying suffering and pleasure, or original sin and redemption, or ego and happiness …

Because: the Duality that emerges from Unity (ألشفع و الوتر): is an unstable status of imperfection,

This is the Seed that has been split, in the Ghita and the Qur’an,

The seed thus germinates a whole world of animation/life, attempting to recreate its original perfection,

The constant process of change, growth, replication, destruction …: is a constant process of suffering: called upon by the need of the pleasure of perfection

Action and Inaction (8)

What gives pleasure or pain varies drastically from one person to another …

All hinging on beliefs and attachment, stemming from a karmic legacy of the many past eons …

The promised paradise of some religions sounds like agony to others …

The deprivation of pleasure and power experienced by the adherents to some religions is the badly wanted satisfaction to others …

The pain of self-torture …, a cleansing process to some religions, is madness to others …

The rituals of worship, believed to be the holiest of human activity to all religions: is silliness and dullness to others …

Illness and exhaustion, after hard work or battle: is elation to the believers in religions which praise toil and combat, are a bad destiny to others …

The disputes between religions around which action is pleasurable and which is a cause of suffering, and hence which is permissible and which is forbidden: will perhaps never subside …

But in the minds of them who have realised that the difference between pleasure and suffering is temporal, it is all … well, suffering,

Not because they are still addicted to pleasure and suffering, but because they want to make their own journey, and others’ if they can, easier, and truly pleasurable …

And because they know now, that it is in their own minds, and by themselves, that such labels are written and placed

Action and Inaction (9)

No religious authority nowadays can claim that it draws its authority from heaven,

Times have changed, and reason has prevalence over belief, and laypeople don’t buy into such claims anymore,

And those who perform magic and miracle healing had better accept that their skills, if they truly have them, be submitted to scientific investigation, for the world to learn from them,

Such skills shouldn’t be allowed to be faked, and shouldn’t be used as a pretense of divine authority,

The only authority that exists nowadays is that of reason,

This one needs not allegiance to religions, or a special racial lineage,

All people are endowed with it, and it’s up to them to cultivate or mute it,

If they cultivate it and develop it, they come truly close to the divine,

Otherwise, they’ll dwindle in the ape, which has only likeness to the human, as the Books have warned them …

The do’s and don’ts of religions are explicable by reason, and applicable by cooperation,

No commandment or a prohibition were delivered at a god’s whim,

Religions had better refrain from making decisions on behalf of god, and from telling the world that god thinks this and plans that and hates this and likes that …

If paganism is the worship of manmade things, all religions are doing it, with various degrees and intentions …

When reason is the reference, religions and nations will agree on a lot of things, and disagreements are discussed and negotiated, rather than fought out

Action and Inaction (10)

Action and inaction which have different purposes cannot concur, and this is the most self-evident statement,

The choice of a natural purpose, therefore, is always off target,

Natural purpose, as in a purpose representable naturally, whether physically, presumably or conceptually,

For religions to be sourced from the One Divine, their actions and inactions have to have one target,

If alternative targets are envisaged, they fall immediately in the realm of temporariness and nature,

If a practitioner of a religion can come close to the target, they should be able to figure out that the action and inaction of other religions can also lead to it,

The process of establishing the parallelism can, of course, be arduous …

But once established in the minds of them who choose to learn to teach, it becomes common knowledge in time, and a fait accompli,

No action or inaction, per se, are the purpose of existence …

But experiencing them … for the purpose of overriding the need of them … can be,

At that point, the question: what is the purpose, is silenced, as has been said on this Page a few times …

Action and Inaction (11)

Wherever you turn your ears, there’s advice being given on the virtues of cooperation and compassion, and forbearance and tolerance, and friendship and amicableness, and modesty and contentment, and generosity and benevolence, and honesty and faithfulness …

Not to sound alarmist and pessimist, what is actually around is mostly the opposite …

Is it because the people in general have a stronger inclination to bad behaviour? or is it because the advice is quickly discredited?

Discredited in the minds of laypeople, who have seen that such words are now bare slogans, used for advertising religions and political ideologies …

Those, thrive on evil and bad predicaments,

This is their only opportunity to advertise their usefulness …

Not because they have the remedy for them,

But because in normal happy circumstance: they have nothing to give,

They need a disaster to promote themselves as the saviors …

From such a perspective: they are, themselves, sometimes intentionally and sometimes unintentionally: the makers of evil and bad predicaments …

Listen to the pious people of religion, inviting you to love god, and paradise and salvation, to support you in your bad times and hardship, to promise you good in every way you demand it …

Say to them: “yes, I want those things, but is it OK if I try to get them from this other house, which also happens to offer them?”

And notice what their faces will turn to,

The smiles and friendliness will vanish, to be replaced with confusion, and perhaps aggression …

The mild and civilised ones of them will say: “O you’re free to choose”, only to leave you alone …, and to think that your fate is going to be one of pain and suffering, because only they know the good …

Virtue is not a brand or a language and rituals, or customs and culture, or a political alliance,

If religions can teach virtue, we shouldn’t be able to distinguish between them …

But religions want to be separate and distinguishable, even before they start lecturing: by their mannerism and attires …

The state of peril they have created, in the hope to thrive in it: will bring on their all destruction

Action and Inaction (12)

People can never know the ill intent of other people, unless those have openly declared it, when they act with an intent to cause harm, and they make no secret about it,

And when people say that they act with the intent of benefit but act harmfully, we can’t know whether they are dishonest, or they miscalculated,

In both cases, the receiver of the harm has only one choice, and that is to forgive,

Of course, there are those situations when the harm has to be stopped, for it not to go further,

In which case, if harm is accidentally dealt to the causer of harm, one can say that the intent of the defender is good, even if harm is inflicted on the offender,

In any case, harm cannot be stopped by harm, and defense should only aim at stopping harm,

The ideologies which condone offence for the sake of preempting offence, or pacifism for the sake of defusing offence: sit diametrically opposite each other,

In practical situations: both can deliver a good or a bad outcome, depending on the circumstances,

COB doesn’t suggest that any ideology regarding such matters be expounded and adopted,

Rather, inclusiveness, fraternity, openheartedness, wanting for others what one wants for oneself … should be taught to children at early age, and demonstrated to them practically … in order to eradicate the laws of the jungle from the minds of people, and in order to ease tensions which otherwise can flare out as now an unavoidable conflict,

This is a long process, but should be started.

Governments can set laws and penal systems to keep their countries in order, if they fail to foster a spirit of cooperation in which people manage their affairs without much interference from governments, but this is still a farfetched idea, and the fact that there are multiple cultures and beliefs in the world makes it more like a dream than a realisable ambition …

But as individuals and smaller groups or communities, people can work towards such a virtuous purpose, whereby everyone is keen to protects others’ right as much as they are to protect their own,

It is only in corrupt minds and clashing interests and selfish aims and ambitions … that problems arise,

And when such conditions are brought upon by an ideology: the problem is much harder to resolve,

And when such ideology is believed to be a god’s commandment: the problem is near impossible to resolve, until Time has defused it by the laws of nature,

All around the world now, conflicts are being prepared for: in the name of a god,

And although secular nations are too clever to openly say it: it is in the minds of most of them,

But it is the meek who will inherit the earth, as all the Books have told,

Those whose good intent is stronger than the might of firepower

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The continuous chain of action and consequence of action cannot be stopped simply by appearing to refrain from action, in whichever religious frame of mind this is considered …

For, we deceive only ourselves when we refrain from action, in the belief that this “action” will magically fix us and fix the world and the hereafter …

Inaction is just a different kind of action, this is why COB calls it action, and our minds, bodily functions, emotions … never rest, outside our scope of control, even as we sleep …

When we interact with the world, we constantly refer to our list of do’s and don’ts, consciously or unconsciously, whether we are religious or not …

Driven by the fear of suffering the consequences of engaging in prohibited action …, whether the consequences are personal, social, legal … or spiritual: we stop…

And that’s good, but what’s more important is the work in our minds: of questioning and looking for answers …

So that the choice of inaction is honest and genuine, and the desire to break laws or transgress commandments is under the control of reason …

Of course, certain situations require rebellion, when prohibitions cannot pass logical tests, and are perceived to be an authority’s means of control …

But rebellion needs to be thoroughly thought out and has to have new rules agreed upon by those who rebel,

This process of rebellion against norms to change social attitudes, laws and beliefs … is an ongoing process for clever individuals and in clever societies …

As for the ones which stagnate, those are them who believe to be on guidance from some god,

They are fearful of his punishment, and keen to receive his rewards …

They can’t see that such gods are incapable of creating this glorious, beautiful, virtuous … world,

Such people, usually die alive, when time crushes them under its relentless turnings of the karmic wheels …

If they say: god gave us minds to abide by his list of do’s and don’ts,

Tell them: if you all can agree on one list that works for everyone and can be applied everywhere and forever, we’ll go along with you,

If they start this process of consultation and deliberation sincerely, they’ll discover that God indeed endowed them with thinking minds, to impart wisdom to them, for them to work out the best and most virtuous actions at the right place at the right time for the right reason … by themselves, guided by the commandments that came in all the Books

Action and Inaction (14)

When people act to appease or please a god, they have no idea that their actions are actually selfish in nature,

Because: they all agree, and logic agrees, that the Creator of the world is Needless …

And if they say He created out of need, whatever it may be:

If you have a need, it means you can’t create,

Because if you can create, you have no need,

Logic and reason are our only means of approaching those highly abstract concepts, and let’s not forget that all Abrahamic religions started off by a very simple logical statement, when he said to his people: do you worship what you carve, and it is God Who created you and what you make? (Qur’an)

So, when the Qur’an, the Hikmah, the Greek philosophy and the Ghita mention that the purpose of the creation is to abide in Him, for the purpose of knowing and remembering: this has to be taken to its highest approach, as an approach to Oneness from duality,

How and why duality occurs, is not a question that can be answered by intellectual arguments, but all the Books hint that it is a simultaneous emergence of actuality from potentiality,

So, those who perform the actions which please such gods, in fact do so to gain the reward their men of religion promised them, according to their interpretations of the Books, such as victory over the enemy, health and wealth, pleasure of whatever kind …: and pretty much more of the same in the hereafter …

These are their needs and demands,

They can’t claim that it is out of love of humanity and god that they worship and abide by religious laws …

In fact, this is what the Qur’an calls “the trade that doesn’t profit”,

A trade that in fact generates only loss

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The theories around whether it is action or inaction, and which action, makes people happy and the world virtuous: are many, and more is yet to come,

Religions seem all to point to “salvation”, in whichever form this is understood to be,

This can be a permanent place like this one, with the difference that there: all needs are immediately satisfied,

Or a complete cessation of existence …!

Secular ideologies inspired by science cannot find a purpose for life, although they say they embrace human values which promote human life and insure its continuance,

Unfortunately, such a view has a scope of application that would expand to the whole world only when there’s no imminent danger to the holder of it,

This is most likely to happen in a university’s lecture theatre, or at the podium in a press conference,

And as soon as danger lurks around, the scope of application narrows, and at its lowest: the valued “human life” is reduced to the life of the one person, holding such views …

Hence, the laws of the jungle apply to activate the process of “natural selection”,

Intelligent laypeople don’t buy into any of those theories,

Their instinct tells them that both got it wrong,

Not because they have an answer, but indeed because they feel that there is no straight answer that can be summarised in an ideology or a religion,

Such people are happy to accept their lives and to enjoy them,

And a sense of equalness with other humans and indeed a sense of compassion to all living beings: lights up deep inside them,

Without the fanfare and the slogans of religions and without ideologies of any kind,

If all of those groups come to a consensus: that they all exist, and that their existence is not mutually exclusive …, they would stop wanting the pleasure of survival on the ruins of others …

It is only by a rational approach that such ends can be aimed at,

Reason is the universal power that is in the minds of all humans, dwarfing religions and ideologies: if awakened,

And when it is, ancient philosophies and the Books of Greece, China, India, the Levant …, and indeed the recent ones of the Age of Enlightenment: will start to point to one target

Action and Inaction (16)

Perhaps the action that evokes most controversy, and indeed can be a catalyst for flaring up animosity and conflict, is what is generally called “ritual”, and from the practitioners’ standpoint: “worship”,

I don’t know if psychology has conducted a study of the human need for rituals, as to how it evolves, and what drives it, and what it effects deep inside the human psyche …

Because, there’s certainly more to rituals than meets the eye …

Not surprisingly, the need for rituals varies between individuals and cultures, but one can comfortably say that no individual or culture is totally free from them, although the degree of dependence on them or attachment to them also varies …:

In their mildest form, such as a regular habit of physical exercise, listening to one’s favourite music, gardening … or just a hot bath, to their religious form of an action believed to be demanded by heaven, for heaven to be content and to oblige with its supply of goods and services …, and the entire spectrum between those secular and religious extremes …

In their secular form, the practitioners attempt to reach a calm state of mind, perhaps subconsciously, to recharge their batteries, as English speakers say,

The overall benefit of some of those rituals to the individual's health and wellbeing is probably scientifically well established,

I don’t know if a study or a survey of the practitioners of such secular rituals has been conducted, to determine how such rituals effectively help individuals to cope with the physical, emotional and mental stresses of everyday life, and whether this builds up in them enough strength to make them less vulnerable, for example to using alcohol, tobacco, illicit or prescription mind-modifying drugs …: which is surely a sign of mindful and emotional strengths, enabling them to discipline themselves to get on with their daily lives confidently and happily,

As for religious rituals, this is a more complex subject, requiring perhaps more than one post to look into it, so I’ll leave it to the next post …

Action and Inaction (17)

Widening the meaning of the word “ritual”, to encompass regular habits and practices … allows us to look at religious rituals from a rational perspective: not wanting to assume them a heavenly authority’s commandment, nor dismissing them outright as a vain activity,

Let’s not forget that prior to “religions”: there had always been rituals in different cultures and around the different parts of the world,

Hence, religions can’t claim to be the first inventors or sole prescribers of rituals,

And this should’ve alerted them to the psychological or evolutionary aspect of them, outside religious beliefs and practices which market them as an unquestionable heaven-sent prescription for salvation …

So, if we free our minds, on one hand from slighting or scorning religious rituals, and on the other hand from revering them to the point of fear of not performing them …: we can start to look into them for the purpose of understanding how they work in our minds …, so we have a rational approach to them,

By making such a progress in our minds, the borders separating “rituals” from habits and addictions to habits … become fuzzy …

And this is not an unfair outcome of such a progress …:

While people practice religious rituals … automatically and unconsciously, to the point that, while performing them, their bodies seem to move or rest totally automatically …: their minds are busy churning away their usual worries and wants and other negative emotions …

This can be precisely the healing or pacifying process that we’ve highlighted in this approach to understanding “rituals” …

But can also be an affirmation and an entrenchment of those worries and wants, if true spirituality is still out of reach …

And that’s fine. People have a need for such a relaxing and calming habit. If practised sincerely, it does help them with their everyday obstacles and stresses …

But again, and like every other activity we’ve looked at in the past on this Page: if this is believed to be a god’s commandment, the neglect of which is punishable in eternal fire, the carrying out of which is rewardable in eternal bliss and happiness: this is when irrationality takes over one’s mind …

Partitioners of religious rituals, blinded by their belief, can’t see that this is the frame of mind that the Books, all of them, came to actually help the people free themselves from,

But they still share it with their pagan predecessors,

In the belief that: it is this movement and not that one that makes god happy, or that it is in this place not that place, or under the patronage of this person not that person …

By so doing, they have not progressed …

The verses of the Books that they are meant to recite while practising: are meant to point them to the true source of equanimity and wisdom,

Equanimity and wisdom which cannot be reached by rituals which are believed to buy reward and avert punishment

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In the minds of them who trust and practise rituals: even the commandments which are meant to guide them in their interaction with one another and with the world in general, to guide them to good self-conduct, and point them to building just and harmonious societies, practically:

Even those commandments are taken as rituals, and applied blindly, without consideration of the cause and effect of actions, and without reason,

Because in their minds, the world is run by the magic and at the whim of a god, who is powerful and temperamental and doesn’t like to be questioned,

This is why they end up charting the most ludicrous of decrees, when faced with new situations that are not mentioned in their presumed god’s laws and rituals,

A typical such example is when Islamic scholars decreed that for a woman to share an office with a male colleague without transgressing the shariah, she has to breast feed him, or to pretend to if she’s not lactating, so that he becomes legally her son according to their literal interpretation of Islamic shariah,

This and other similar decrees are inspired by what is believed to be the hadeeth (analects) of prophet Muhammad,

Although the authenticity of the Hadeeth is questionable – but let’s suppose that it is authentic, in all its Shia and Sunni different versions – they refuse to consider that this was dealing with social and family issues of then heathen Arabia, that is 1500 years ago …

This affirms COB’s view, that literal interpretations of Books and holy discourses are indeed a confinement of mind and intellect, within which the borders of the world and mankind are drawn, and any attempt to look outside them is deemed heretical, leading to an eternal sentence of suffering …

But the ritualic mind frame is not unique to Muslims, in fact all Abrahamic religions have fallen into such mental traps, and indeed Far Eastern religions, without an exception

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As for “worship”, I’ll look into the concept from the perspective of both languages, English and Arabic, before attempting to remove from it all ritualistic connotations,

So, by saying that I’m going to separate rituals from worship: I’ve made a pre-set target,

And that’s not a biased approach, as in having an a priori conviction, before starting an investigation,

Because:

If we say that worship is expressed or carried out as a ritual, we have to say which ritual,

Because:

One reader might say: this ritual you have chosen is not worship,

So, to get all the practitioners of rituals to agree on one ritual that is universally acknowledged as worship: is an impossibility,

And, because:

Regarding the concepts of religious ritual and worship by a ritual: one can inarguably say they are founded on irrationality,

I say "irrationality", even if it is believed to be true faith or something else: because it is totally subjective, and cannot be proven or disproven rationally,

Therefore, separating or conjoining them is logically immaterial,

Of course, a keenly open-minded person will say: I acknowledge all forms of worship and respect them all, hence you can’t dismiss any of them …

Indeed, I’ll go along on this premise,

So, in the back of my mind, I’ll have all the known religious rituals under the header of “worship”,

While bearing in mind that some people - and I have mainly the atheists in mind now - do not acknowledge any kind of worship, except facetiously, in order not to hurt the feelings of the practitioners of worship:

At an intellectual level, and in the depth of their minds, they do not hold any true appreciation of them,

Therefore, it is safest to take the approach of separating rituals from worship logically at least, because I will be saying that atheists worship too, although they don't practise a ritual of worship, and are unaware of their worship,

Because, like the concept of ritual is extendable to any habitual practice or absence of it, which benefits the practitioner psychologically and emotionally …, also worship is extendable to the reverence that we hold deeply in our psyches for some power outside us, god or something else, which is believed to be the sustainer of our existence and wellbeing

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According to English dictionaries, the word “worship” has two syllables “wor” and “ship”, rooted in ancient Indo-European languages, pointing to “honour” and “being suited for”, respectively,

But whether the word “worship” was first used as a title to honour certain people, or to denote an act of devotion … can’t be established with any degree certainty …

The essence, though, is clear in our minds, whether the word is used as a verb or as an adjective or noun,

Hence, in English, it is still used to title judges (his worship judge John), although less commonly now, after it has been replaced by “honour”,

In Arabic, on the other hand, the root “عبد” points to “to go on a certain way”,

Hence, we use the derived verb “عبّد يُعبّد تعبيدًا” to point to building a road and surfacing it,

The word “عبد" as a noun, points to slave or servant,

Hence in its plural forms “ألعباد، ألعبيد” it points to “the people” or “humanity”,

Again, in this case, how the word was extended to point to the practice of religious rituals can never be established,

But what’s noteworthy here is that “worship” is thus linked essentially to treading a path,

The reason why we should look at the roots of words is because the usages of the words evolves, as social values change and new beliefs are adopted and old ones dropped …

And the change happens gradually, until someone starts using the word to point to the new concept,

Some might argue that the meaning of the original root in Arabic is “to submit to something or someone”,

But this is coessential with “to go on a way”,

The images of the two concepts are intrinsically related to one another in our abstract mind,

Interestingly, the verb “to abide” has a sound similar to “ عبد", and as explained in a previous chain of posts: this doesn’t necessarily suggest that one language borrowed the word from another,

But it is the universality of the sounds that points to what COB postulates to be the primordial set of sounds or language, which sits on top of all known languages and the future ones to come,

So, what we do constantly: is to pin down those abstracts, and look for the sounds which befit them, then apply them to a thing or a concept …: and not the other way around,

The other way around is based on the belief in Creationism as hypothesised by religion, whereby god teaches language to mankind,

The Evolution antithesis takes a natural approach, assuming that somehow humans started to use sounds to communicate, to point to things and concepts,

In either case, it is in the human mind that those abstracts reside, and whether one believes that god put them there, or that people brought them out and expressed them, based on their experiences with the sounds of nature and so on …: is unimportant, except from the perspective of beliefs …

The concept of worship, as in the practice of a ritual, which has been passed down from past generations, and believed to be a god’s requirement: can thus start to look as a distortion of the concept of reverence, submission and abidance

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To modern minds, which have experienced the power of reason, and witnessed firsthand the achievements of technology and science: worship, as a ritual, is the total surrender of reason to irrationality,

But as proposed before, if such a process helps people to cope with the pressures and contradictions of everyday life, one can say it’s OK, if a solid and clear line is drawn between “faith” and irrationality,

For, if we argue that faith is irrational and shouldn’t be investigated intellectually and philosophically, we open the doors wide to all kinds of claims and counter claims …

The state of spiritual anarchy in the world today is the result of conflicting spiritual theories, based on nothing but impressions and strongly held opinions and convictions, passed down from the past millennia, although unproven,

But of course, every religion and branch thereof claim to have evidence drawn from the Books and the prophets’ discourses, and from events that are believed to have happened, while there’s no evidence to their occurrence,

Such believed evidence is no more than an opinion and an attachment to an idea that cannot stand a logical or scientific investigation …

To the contrary, evidence to the fallaciousness to such claims and beliefs keeps emerging, as if time is trying to call all religions to wake up to the causes of their disaccord and intellectual stagnation,

The most recent pandemic, which has hit all nations, religions and races, indiscriminately, despite the religious authorities’ and the faithful’s trust in their spiritual immunity: has been a loud wakeup call to all of them,

To live up to the responsibility of fighting the disease together, for the benefit of all of them,

So that the disease doesn’t become a ploy for religions and political parties around the world, and giant financial and pharmaceutical companies: trying to gain an advantage over their rivals: at the expense of the wellbeing and happiness of ordinary helpless people …

This has been indeed a startling battle of reason over fallacy,

A battle which will be won by them who aren’t easily drawn to the loud advertising of religion, politics and business …

The nature of faith can thus be seen to evolve, as time opens the doors to new mind skills and capabilities, so that religions are not trapped in “worshipping” the past, by clinging to beliefs that are now as hollow as the statues and the stones of all shapes and sizes …

Reason is the power shared by all people,

The faith in it will bring them closer together, and points them to their shared goals,

And if the people of religions read their Books with reason in mind, they’ll find that their Books are actually a call to reason, in their time and language,

This is today’s “worship”, the worth of reverence, and the way that will lead to a better future if tread

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What is action and what is inaction? what is good action and what is bad action?:

Are questions which have indeed baffled and exhausted the intellect of the intellectual, and the faith of the faithful,

And how often, the ones who have strong opinions and unshakable belief: have found themselves having to choose between two evil actions,

Or indeed, not knowing whether a certain action is good or bad,

Hence, the Ghita asks those questions earnestly, but goes on to refer action to the nature of the doer of it,

Thus, the person in that nature of Tamas (inertia and dullness) or Rajas (passion and preoccupation) can only act unvirtuously,

Whereas the one in the nature of Sattva (balance and harmony) acts for the aim of bettering life and benefitting others …

But the Ghita always goes on to say that he who has surpassed the three modes of nature, acts and doesn’t suffer from the karmic consequences of his actions,

Hence, I find the Qur’an’s “that deeds are in the intent”: in total conformity with the Ghita’s explanation of action,

But not many can come close to this high stage of awareness,

And religions’ fault, from the Far East to the West, has been that they make false claims: that their leaders have achieved the highest stage of awareness, using whatever word from their lexicon, and that their aim is to help the people achieve it,

The vulgarisation of spirituality thus renders it fallacious …

Hence, real guidance for all people of different levels of intellectual, educational and spiritual development: should never be of short supply,

With all this in mind, and in the present time, good and bad action cannot be defined or described, except in the context of laws, whose purpose is to preserve order in societies and facilitate legal procedures,

From this perspective, one should be one’s own overseer and supervisor of one’s actions and inactions,

When people cannot live up to this personal responsibility, they surrender their minds and lives to the authorities they choose to trust, whether secular or religious

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When we say that the Ghita or any other Book says that enlightened people surpass the karmic consequences of their actions, and that deeds are in the intent: it shouldn’t be understood that such people do not adhere to religious commandments,

Such an interpretation gives birth to new interpretations … which seek to bypass religious commandments or claim to better them,

This is the very mistake that was highlighted in the previous post, so it is not repeated again,

As another example, if we say clean people do not need to perform a ritual of ablution a number of times every day, because it is their habit to have a daily shower: it doesn’t mean that a daily shower should become the new ritual,

If it does, we haven’t progressed,

In a chain of posts in the past, COB gave a new understanding of the Ten Commandments; in it, it was said that the Ten Commandments are universal, and that societies would fall apart if they didn’t adhere to them,

And they, indeed, feature in every religion and secular law, in as far as the practical commandments are concerned, albeit as a variation of them, befitting the time and the circumstances, even in Confucianism,

Freedom from action and inaction is a state of awareness of universality of awareness that doesn’t translate to a list of do’s and don’ts,

Except when religions or other authorities claim exclusive ownership of it

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It doesn’t make any difference to the world, if people worshipped in this house or that house, of this style of architectural design and decorations, or that style and decorations, according to this ritual or that ritual …

But it makes a lot of difference, if people carried out their duties and jobs sincerely, and to the best of their expertise and knowledge, with one purpose in mind, and that is to serve their communities, so they too can be served reciprocally,

The situation in Lebanon, which has been the subject of many posts on this Page, where religions continue to fan the flames of hatred and war, using the places of “worship” as a podium for scaremongering and falsely promising victory and salvation:

Is not unique to Lebanon, although Lebanon has reached a rock-bottom level of disintegration and corruption,

Such a spirit of division and hatred is spreading quickly in the world, and corruption, greed and carelessness about the world … have become the norm, nay, a religious duty, commanded by a god who seeks vengeance and the destruction of his enemies …!

People of divided religions continue fanning the flames of war, and intensifying their rituals, to invoke the heavens to support them to crush their enemies …, and their enemies do the same …

The mutual destruction that they will bring about will not lead to their any salvation …

So we’ve said on this Page before, the best worship that people can exercise today is to do their duties sincerely and fairly, without grudge or bias, and without the expectation of a bribe or a reward from heaven, here on earth or in the hereafter …

If people can make the world peaceful and abundant, they’ll realise that this is the reward of their own good work,

As a true Hadeeth says: “the best of people are the ones who are most beneficial to the people”,

But this is Hadeeth that is never quoted or remembered, because it doesn’t suit the agendas of religions,

The only "benefit" they demand, is to harm their enemies …!

And let people worship or not worship, in whichever way they want, this is no one’s concern or business. Only God judges the people

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Everything worships,

The wind when it blows, the rain when it falls,

The stars when they twinkle, the seasons when they consecute,

The engineers when they design, the farmers when they harvest,

The athletes when they dazzle, the musicians when they intone,

The cleaners when they repair, the physicians when they heal …

The birds when they tweet, the crickets and the stars,

The whales when they sing, the geese when they flock,

The planets as they orbit, the galaxies as they waltz,

The universe when it manifests, the matter that it illustrates,

Everything and every movement of everything has its law of beginning, progress and finishing,

This is the worship of the creation to the Creator,

The joy of existence and its purpose,

What man’s purpose is, for him to learn

The causes of things, so the Cause of all their causes,

In his thoughts, feelings and actions are all in tune

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The “action” that is meant to be a cessation of action/inaction, hence was first called “sabbath” (stillness) in the early Abrahamic religions: is what is nowadays generally called prayer,

As every other activity can have a temporal purpose, this one is not meant to have one,

But indeed, the negation of temporal purposes is what constitute an approach to connection,

Connection that has been given different names in the Semitic languages of the Middle East,

But as the Qurán declares it truthfully, the people of the Book differed when guidance was given to them,

The people of the Book being all the people of Abrahamic religions who were given a Book, including the Muslims,

The reason behind their difference is that they take their “prayer” as an action which pleases a local god,

If the Sabbath in Judaism, the disciplines of celibacy and isolation in Christianity, or the payers in Islam …: were taken sincerely as an approach to connection with the Creator: there would not have been so many gods for the Abrahamic religions: one for each sect of every religion, serving the demands of each group and supporting them against their enemies …

On the other hand, in the Far East, although the purpose of meditation is better explained in the Books, the religions of the Far East have also fallen in the traps of multiple purposes, differing on which image meditation should reveal to the practitioner, or how emptiness is experienced, using which technique and by which rituals expressed in which vocabulary …

Thus prayers and meditation, in most of the cases, have been reduced to an activity, that is ritualistically prescribed, giving irrationality precedence over reason,

The vulgarisation thus of spirituality: is in fact a barrier to it, and the diverter from it,

And moreover, it stirs up competition, animosity and discrimination, and deters not from the passion for worldly aims and activity,

But the few scattered around the world, of different religions or religionless, who have experienced their connections, even for a few short seconds: are the victors, free from exhibitionist piety

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Awe is in our human nature, also an aptitude, so to speak,

The human mind loves to be awed by a “power above it”,

And this is another subject that psychology should attempt to study impartially,

I say impartially, because, by the look of things, psychology seems to have always a preset target, and that is to affirm the theory or a theory of evolution, as posited by other branches of science,

As such, psychology picks and chooses its subjects of investigation which gear towards its target, also the factors at play in the mind activities that it investigates in general …, and any psychologist breaking this tradition is deemed unconventional and dealt a lot of criticism,

But, as said before on this Page, one can’t give a lesson in swimming if one hasn’t practised it,

Worse still, if one took a dive in the water and panicked, and hence came out immediately, to pretend to be a swimming expert,

Hence psychology’s scope of study is sadly narrow and limited, and when psychologists embark on a study, it is about their own psyches and the psyches of likeminded people and other psychologists, whose psyches have been shaped by their common beliefs and convictions, and this is how they get the approval they need to carry on with their research and theories,

This is why you see people who practise meditation, for example, even at an elementary level, having a broader scope of knowledge of the human psyche than highly qualified academics, who’ve spent their lives looking for the traits of their presumed ancestral monkeys and unicellular beings in them …

One can argue: this is the purpose of a mind,

A mind that is capable of interaction and reaction, rather than just devising survival skills …

And it gets a bit complicated here, because one can argue that even those activities not directly linked to enhancing survival: can be seen as ones which are, and the opinions and counter-opinions can be as numerous as anyone can imagine …

Regarding awe however, some humans don’t experience much of it, whether of the world or some hypothetical entity, having their minds totally preoccupied with needs and survival …, and if they do experience it, they dull it and ignore it, in the belief it is an unintelligent or a primitive experience,

In any case, the question: what inspires awe … has different answers to different people, depending on their beliefs and karmic heritage,

We need to ask, because it is interesting to know what awes people, because it inspires and motivates them,

And whether awe is experienced as fear or simply as reverence and admiration, the two modes do overlap,

Humans can’t help being fearful of the world they’re in, and at the same time awed by it …

Even in their dullest mindsets of struggle for survival: when the incalculable might of nature has surrounded them …

The implicitness between awe and fear, however, is more complex than can be fathomed, because at one border of fear lingers the need for survival,

At this end, the dependence on awed things and the trust in their power are projected,

And hence, awed things reside in the same compartments of our minds as the providers of sustenance,

I guess, such a lengthy and sloppy analysis: is an attempt to state the most self-evident: that we are awed by what we believe to be the sustainer of our lives

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The capacity of awe in humans determines their capacity to worship and their mode of worship,

This is a delicate correlation, and I do it disservice by making such a general statement,

Because: in the end, and as we’ve proposed before: everything and everyone worships,

Hence the awe varies significantly, in mode and inspiration,

So, for example, the awe of nature and its laws inspires scientific pursuits,

But the same awe inspires religiousness, and evokes, contradictorily, the fear of supernatural powers,

On the other hand, the “I” that is self-protective and self-loving: will use awe to inflame and feed its passions,

Because: the “I” senses its helplessness before what awes it …

Hence, whether awed by nature or an assumed supernatural power: sustenance, as a need, is prospected to be supplied by nature or the supernatural,

People worship whatever they have installed in the compartment of their brain that is labelled as “the sustainer”,

This is everyone’s “the god compartment”,

In which people have thrown almost everything imaginable,

Here are some famous examples …: possessions, money, trade, family and tribe, sex, country and nature, race, religion, ideology, a place or building or any manmade thing, supernatural beings … including god …

All those petty things: the mind has the power … has the power to identify them and free itself from them, to peak to its Reality, from which all of these are projected

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By giving examples of “worshipped” things, as in the previous post, we show that the worshipped thing and the action which embodies the worship: are inseparable,

It is always the case, that whenever something, conceptual or physical, is worshipped: there’s an action at play …

So, from the previous examples:

For money: worship is the cleverness of making, accounting and multiplying it …

For family and tribe: the worship is customs and traditions …

For sex: the worship again is the customs and traditions which maintain the balance between reproduction and pleasure …

For country: nationalism and what it entails of love of the land and fellow nationals and leaders, and the hatred of enemies and competitors …

And so on with other worshipped things …, until we come to religious worship …

This one is believed to be commanded by god,

And includes the previous ones which are broadly shared by religious and secular ideologies,

The issue with religious worship, however, is that it is owned exclusively by the clergy, and those will make sure that it remains so …

As we can’t set a general statement describing the motive of all clergy, for example, whether it is nationalistic or racial, whether it is economic or strategic, or whether it is a sincere belief that it is the commandments of a god:

We have to take it at its face value, that it is believed to be the commandments of a god,

And this should be respected, nevertheless be allowed to be discussed in a rational and civilised manner,

Such discussions can only happen when there is a sincere will to allow freedom of belief, and there’s equality which leaves no one unfairly treated …

The desperate need for ritualist religious worship at a populous level is almost always born and fostered in dire conditions and existential hardships, whereby people feel that their very existence is threatened,

In such conditions, the clergy are too happy to step in to supply their services …

But if there has been a spirit of rational and free discussions, the battle against irrational practices and beliefs is less difficult, and rationality can thus be awakened as the real approach to solving problems …

The Lebanon example affords a typical case study, whereby a number of religions and beliefs, practising different rituals and going by different traditions, have coexisted …, but were never willing to discuss their beliefs rationally, to be accommodating and accepting of each other, as their very Books have commanded them …

Their clergy turn a blind eye to the verses of their Books which command open-mindedness and acceptance, and of course justice and equality, to focus mainly on the verses which can be interpreted to encourage animosity and self-selection,

The promises their clergy have promised them are being shown false, one after the other, but they still cling ever more to their phantoms, unwilling to examine the source of their total political and spiritual breakdown … in their own psyches and in their beliefs and traditions …

But like it has been shown that bombing a country can’t bring it forward from an archaic form of rule to a modern democratic one in one big step:

Also waging tribal wars can’t change the beliefs and traditions of a people, by punishing them on behalf of a god, by forcing them to abandon their beliefs to adopt different ones …

Major changes will take a few generations to happen, and need political, social and economic stability and a good level of education … if they are to be for the better …

And above all, foresightedness and a will to abandon millennia-old traditions

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On the other hand, the concept of Samsara in Buddhism, which is thought to be a cause of misery for humanity:

The discussions and explanations of it …, the rituals and practices which are meant to help the practitioner to free themselves from it …: are themselves: Samsara …

I’m sure it would’ve been said in the Dharma, or in subsequent writings of Buddhas, that Samsara is the state of instability created in duality …

The Ghita declares it also very clearly …, that consciousness in duality is an unstable state of existence, bound by constant activity …

Is this good or bad?

Religious authorities have hastened to provide lists of do’s and don’ts to their congregations, which help them to dodge bad actions and encourage good ones: for the purpose of slowing down and perhaps stopping the self-generating cycle of Samsara,

Such lists and recommendations cannot be taken as a precise science, or as the eternally true word of a god: because they are conceived and born in their place and time …

All the Books have alluded in the language of their place and time to the reality of duality, and that freedom from it is deep inside one’s own psyche,

If one can experience Oneness in Vastness, they have been freed, but they might have a desire to impart their freedom to others …

This is Samsara …

Is it good or bad?

So, COB suggests to all religions to go back to their starting point in their own minds, leaving the volumes of books of exegeses, interpretation and explication, written centuries or millennia ago, for those times and cultures …,

Very few Buddhist teachers have shown that they have achieved that …, and this should urge them to widen hence their scope of understanding of world religions, and indeed their own

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We have come to a point where the many theories about life, death, continuance, salvation …, and the many solutions to the world’s big and small problems, proposed or enforced by such theories …: are now themselves the problem,

The problem which can’t resolve itself!

As has been said many times on this Page:

Those theories were perhaps good in their time and culture,

They taught people and their rulers good values, fitting their situations,

Albeit, imperfectly,

But each was good enough to have a momentum lasting a few centuries …

How many a story, demonstrating virtue, spirituality, selflessness, heroism, high standards of self-conduct, just governance …: are told in the history books, or by the mouths of the people, passed down from many generations ago

: in every culture of the world, big and small?

Whether they conquered half the world, or just the few islands and the beasts on them around them,

Whether they designed skyscrapers, or built solid and long-lasting igloos …

Those are human achievements that all humans should be proud of and eager to learn from,

The descendants of all human civilisations are all descendants of great human civilisations,

Time seems to care nil about people’s self-grading, and indeed their grading of others …

So, which one of those civilisations was guided by the good god, and which by the devil?

The answer is very certain to the strong believers in their own cultures,

Those will not hesitate to say: we have to adhere to our traditions,

So, if you ask them: what solution do you have? about a particular problem …

You pretty much know the pre-prepared answer, if you are familiar with their beliefs and thinking …

But nowadays, all the cultures of the world, including the world’s religions: are facing an existential threat,

The methods of old times are no more applicable,

This doesn’t mean that the principles of pursuing virtuous personal lives and virtuous societies … must be trashed,

But rather, those principles must now be followed according to the present …

This cannot be summarised in a list of recommendations that fits every society and individual …

But there are now many levels at which those principles must be applied:

Individual, social …, and those two have been reshaped and fundamentally changed since old times ….

Plus, a most important one, that is the international,

It seems that time is telling us that nations of the world have to live as one community, guided by their virtues, applied worldwide,

Rather than counting every “stranger” as an enemy, or a potential enemy,

Or a friend, suspiciously,

However different the religions and political ideologies of the world may be:

There is a power that can power them all,

That is the power of reason,

By this power, science and technology are developed, solutions are found …

By it, also social, political and economic solutions for current differences and problems can be discussed and agreed upon

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Religions of the world are meant to guide the whole world, not just their followers and congregations, or their tribes and nations …

So long as they see that their role is to protect their local world: they will in fact be a source of problems to the world,

Major domestic and international tensions and conflicts: are created and fueled by religions,

In some cases openly and blatantly, in others secretly …

And so long that there are people who follow and believe them: they’ll get the support they need and they’ll continue their work of trouble making …

But of course, they are charitable and helpful to the poor, and call for peace and equality …

The slogans they use from their Books and from the teachings of the good prophets …: are now like the slogans of commercial advertising … designed to market a product …

The vacuum of spirituality and virtue created thus in people’s minds: is in fact their own making, while they pretend to have the remedy …

They say that the world needs them, to guide the world to virtue and faith …

But they are fueling wars and stirring problems and creating divisions all around …, according to their interpretations of prophecies or their fabrications ..., and many world leaders listen to them,

On the other hand, giant global corporations are complementing the ideological wars of religions: by providing the necessary finance and technology …

Those, don’t give a hoot about god and religion, although they might pretend to …

Those have only one target, that is to become as big as possible, to keep their owners’ egos happily boosted,

To play their role in world strategy and politics, beside and over corrupt governments …

To play god …

Because they don’t believe anything …

Chemistry doesn’t mind if millions suffer of starvation, or slave to them …

Chemistry doesn’t mind if the world’s oceans are totally polluted and stifled …

They believe that soon they will be migrating to other planets to set up their own brave new world …

They just plan for one disaster after another …

The thing that none of the players of world business, religion and politics understand is that the events of the world can be modified only marginally by their plotting and propaganda, when they plot and when they hide facts and highlight lies, and when they rally the masses behind them,

The events of the world are directed by Time - so we don’t use words which have religious connotations …

So, for example, if you hide piles of explosive material, for political, business or war purposes, no matter how much you intensify your religious rituals, or believe to be protected by god and the angels for being so pious and of holy origins …:

Time plays out all the potential scenarios … so they eventuate to be witnessed by the people,

And if all the elements of a disaster are there unrecognised or deliberately neglected, they will have to eventuate …

Rendering the local gods and their worshippers totally helpless

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The fabrication and the spreading of false information is not a new phenomenon,

What social media have done is to provide a new platform for it, and to widen its reach and speed up its spread,

This is not being said in defence of social media in any way,

Social media which wield enough power now to influence and dictate politics,

But this is to say that traditional printed or broadcast news, libraries and bookstores, university lecture halls and institutes of religion …: have never been an accurate source of historical or political information,

The writing of history, the reporting of news …: can only be subjective, no matter how impartial they claim to be,

This is why COB suggests that it be made law that news be reported from opposing views, so as to give the reader a wider spectrum of perspectives,

And that news business, if it has to be a business, that it be bound legally by impartiality,

We fool ourselves in the “free world”, when we say we are free, while our media are aligned to one side of politics, and funded by an intricate web of financial interests …

As for religious fabricated news and propaganda, social media has let this totally out of control …:

When every religion and sect of religion found a stage and an audience, to revive traditional and official falsehoods, and make up new ones …; not realising that people with only basic intelligence are going to laugh and turn away …, from propaganda as well as true understanding ...

And when gullible followers carry arms and are made to march to their duties as assigned by god …

We’ve reached a point now where the verification and exposing of fabricated news would be received with a lot of skepticism, if it is run on social or traditional media, or any media for that matter,

Because the world’s clever public is well aware of the presence of a sinister motive behind every piece of news published or muted,

So, what role do religious leaders play inside this dark closed room, where everyone just blows more dust and smoke, to keep it dark so that no exit can be seen …?

If they just sit outside it, at least they’ve done a neutral job,

But if they are right in the middle of it, contributing to darkening it …: their crime is ever bigger than that of arms dealers and corrupt salesmen and politicians,

Because they are meant to guide the world,

If we look at conspiracy theories today: the biggest ones would be those of religions,

Whereby each one has a plot for the end-of-days, and they know precisely who are the good and evil guys and who will be the winners and losers,

And when you see heads of states subscribing to them: the world is not in safe hands

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The separation of religion and statehood hasn’t gone far enough in the countries which have adopted secularism,

To what extent has religion been separated from governance in the countries which consider themselves secular: is a question to which political analysts and historians might have a wide range of different answers, while the ruling party or parties of those countries remain adamant that their system is secular …

A general answer to such a question applying universally to all secular countries is unfeasible,

The comeback of religion in matters of politics, domestically and internationally, overtly and covertly, however, prompts one to question whether secularism has been adopted at all in countries which have laws in place pointing them in a secular direction,

But as COB sees it, secularism which was conceived and given birth to in countries hitherto religious is in fact just another form of religiousness,

Religiousness that is “tolerant” to atheism and to religions other than the dominant one, albeit in various degrees,

As such, atheism itself, as an antithesis of theism, builds on the foundations of religion: because it is meant to oppose such philosophic foundations, and reshape or reword their ethical principles,

As such, atheists’ approach to knowledge, justice and virtues in general, is shaped and guided by its predecessor of religion: even when it opposes it and in extremes rejects it outright,

Hence, COB finds that “religionlessness” is more apt to barring religion or any other theological belief than secularism,

Secular nations are fooling themselves if they say that their social values, politics and economics aren’t influenced by their religious beliefs …

The breakup of the Soviet Union gave a new momentum to religion in East European countries, at the time when the American Administration was flirting with religion, after perhaps a long period of silence …, when president Reagan had established close ties with the Church, and when he justified US’s support to Latin American dictators by describing them as “god fearing” …

Both the communist and capitalist blocks had realised that religion was their cosy home, especially that the public on either side was still attracted to religion …

Thirty years on now, and religion is making its presence quite noticeable, especially when heads of states are open about their religiousness and boast about it …

But on the other hand, the new left, which adopts postmodernist views, and which would like to think that it has gone beyond the debates of atheism versus religion: finds itself facing a battle with thousands of years of human traditions …

And whether genuinely or not, the traditional left finds itself having to fight those same battles …:

It got quite intertwined … when traditional left ran out of innovative ideas, or had to give in to the unpopularity of atheism and non-traditionalism: kowtowed to the conservative lines, and became the new “tyranny” that competes against traditional conservative tyranny …

A quagmire of ideologies has thus emerged, the evolution of which can be traced almost on a daily basis on headline news in corporate media …:

The extreme views of identity politics, and the extreme views of the religious right,

The extreme views of the nationalists backed up by religion, and the extreme views of the globalists, using religion when convenient,

The extreme views of the religious entities, and the extreme views of their opposing religious entities …:

An explosive cocktail, waiting for a small accident to unleash it firepower …

If there’s any sensibility left in the heads of the heads of religions: they wouldn’t each see this as their final battle of Armageddon, when the heavens will descend with its supernatural power to salvage them and thrash their enemies …

But indeed their chance to reconsider their understanding and practice of spirituality and religion

Action and Inaction (35)

We fool ourselves if we say that religions aren’t behind world domestic and international tensions, or at least a major contributor to their escalation …

If we argue that tensions are bound to rise due to conflicting interests, we can also argue that if the ideological bases on at least one side of a conflict are conducive to resolvableness and are ideologically opposed to animosity and war in general …: those tensions can be eased with rational discussions, aiming at finding fair and equitable ways out of them …

But what we have is a god for each nation and each sect of each nation, inspiring his representatives to warn of conflict, to fan the flames of war and rebellion, and to promise final and overwhelming victory …

It seems that selling hysteria is much easier than talking sense and reaching people’s minds with reason …

Religious authorities are the masters of the craft of fearmongering and calling to jihad and patriotic duties …, and I use the word jihad to imply that it is being practised worldwide, even when propaganda presents it as a fight against the jihadists …!

Some practise it blatantly, and some under the slogan of defending freedom and justice, and of course … as an expression of love of the enemies …!

Calls to fear and hatred are often offered on a platter of good advice, in personal life and self-conduct and wellbeing in general …, and often topped with personal help and support …

In tough economic times and political instability, and in the confusion about “right and wrong”, and under the constant pressure of consumerism …, and the many other sources of anxiety … such as climate change and the spread of diseases – even before COVID-19 - : people are left stranded with lack of trust in all religious and political institutes and ideologies, which promise but do not deliver …

Some get to a point of weakness where they revert back to traditional beliefs, on the premise that in the past they built virtuous nations, and that religion has all the answers …

Governments around the world shouldn’t be surprised that conspiracy theories are thriving, and that “terrorism” is believed to be the only method of stopping them …

Governments around the world have heralded this era of spreading false news and hysteria …, with the covert or overt backup of religions …

So, we fool ourselves again, when we believe that religions can be fought or abolished …

When we attempt to “fight” for the purpose of defeating or abolishing religion: we resort to the same ideology and tactic of religion,

Thus, this becomes yet another religion, waging wars against the non-believers …

Religions are deeply imprinted in people’s psyches, and reason is the way to understanding and practising them,

When reason is the guide all religions start to concur,

And those who have been able to live free of religious beliefs are in fact them who have been guided by reason, as the all the Books have pointed

Action and Inaction (36)

“The Way”, is a term that has been used in every Book and religious teaching, even in Confucianism, which is not considered a religion as such,

In every case, however, it has been thought that “the way” is the purpose of religion,

But “the way” is meant to lead to somewhere …

That “somewhere” would have to be one, if we sincerely believe that religions, and indeed all human thought and knowledge are sourced from the same Source …,

Whether this is believed to be in the human mind or in some strata above us …: it is one, for all in all,

And if we examine the cause of science: its purpose is to investigate natural phenomena for the purpose of developing knowledge …

This can be said to be science’s “way”,

Of course, some will argue that the motive behind scientific development is economic …

But those would be inclined to believe that the purpose or one of the purposes of religion is also economic …

The ideology of money worshipping – for lack of other words - : will always be the common ground of all ideologies which see no purpose for life other than itself,

Because: on such a premise there is contest,

The contest is about who can have enough power to survive and flourish, in a random/god-made multiplicity,

Possessions and money would be the embodiment of that “power” in such a paradigm,

This includes religious and political institutes, with all their traditions and laws,

This is not a diversion from investigating what is “the way”,

When the way is thought to be the purpose, life and the enhancement of it become the “way”,

And of course: possessions and money would become thus one certain power of preserving life and enhancing it,

And religions aren’t subtle about that, many of them, if not all, do believe that wealth is a sign of the contentment of heaven,

So, the many “ways” there are: religions’ job is to protect them, for them to be able to deliver the walkers on them to their “ultimate” purpose,

But when religions lose that purpose: they get bogged down in the contests along the many ways …

It is understandable why the events of the last millennia, in which interdependence and the importance of open-mindedness were not immediately self-demonstrable: have led to so many tensions and conflicts …

But those times are now over, and time is providing everyone with every reason to put their local vision of the world behind them, and start thinking universally, for their and everyone else’s sake and survival …

When individuals choose to go “the way”, this is a personal choice wherever they are, in response to invitation from within themselves,

Politics, economics and religions: can’t make them make or unmake this choice,

Nay, those entities ought to stop saying that their “way” should be everyone’s way or is the only or best way,

The focus should be on spreading wealth and comfort to everyone, and upholding justice at every level, international and local, for everyone to be able to make their personal choices without the coercion of politics and religions and their economics,

Religions can’t each go their “way” alone, with interdependence and open-mindedness only as slogans,

The practical way is for everyone to open up to one another to practically rely on each other, rather than compete

Action and Inaction (37)

There’s no limit to how high one’s awareness can go,

And I will use slang words unashamedly, because, those, at least, do not have dictionary spiritual definitions,

So that the reader can take them from their own experiences,

There is no limit,

So, if some guru tells you: hey, the ultimate goal is a paradise, eternal,

Say: but this means that I still have a mind like this one, in order to be able to enjoy it,

This mind will not stop at that paradise, because it knows it has the capability to go higher,

Or, if a guru tells you: hey, all this is an illusion, you’ve got to stop it, there is nothing …

So you go and practise whatever technique to relinquish your attachments, in the hope all the illusions will go …

And yes, at some points those illusions do go …

But you don’t think for a moment that you have vanished, or will ever vanish,

Even if the guru says that it is an ego that has not surrendered itself,

So you go on, and you continue checking in the chamber of yourself for the remnants of furniture left in it …

And you grab every piece of it and throw it all away,

Until you are dead alive, or alive dead,

Incidentally as the Books of Abrahamic religions have hinted …

But you still exist,

You still have a body,

And if you’ve grown sufficient spiritual muscles, strong enough to enable you to leave it, even for a few moments or minutes:

You know that vanishing is not, as much as eternity is not …, because vanishment and eternity are only perceivable in constant activity,

The difference is that what existence can perceive now is of a broader and higher reach,

That can be vast and empty and full and awesome to the point of fright, when natural symbolism is the reference,

And you realise that this is not bad,

If you want to think it’s yet another illusion of a persistent ego:

Well, yes, it is: because you are not Brahman yet, and never will you be,

So just enjoy the pleasure in your closeness to Him, in whichever way He may bestow it upon you,

Yes, this is the reward of your hard labour,

Don’t be bound by the dictionaries of religions,

Religions do not reward and punish, and do not set the criteria or the absence of reward and punishment,

Whatever form of freedom you seek: even if it is an illusion of vanishing or an eternal paradise: it is a result of labour,

Good labour is the freedom from the Samsara of duality, which labours between opposing concepts,

Enjoy it, and never stop aiming for higher, much higher … and yet higher

Action and Inaction (38)

Blind faith is not faith, and faith is in open eyes and minds …

Blind faith is a term broadly referring to belief … which is often associated with actions or inactions not based on reason whatsoever,

And if one examines the commandments of the Books of Abrahamic religions or the Ghita: not from the perspective of religious authorities’ interpretations: one can’t find any hint or invitation to blind faith, as in calling on the believers to trust an argument or a belief, or to perform an action, that is not based on reason,

When it comes to “blind faith”, we have to distinguish between two things:

Rituals and blind faith, while the two do overlap,

Rituals are actions believed to be recommended or obligated to be carried out in the belief they deliver a good outcome … in whatever activity one is engaged,

Such as: if you say this sentence so many times, and do such and such gestures, or visit such holy places and so forth …: then things will go well for you, and your hereafter will also be good …

The Books and the Ghita have never made such promises … ever,

If people believe that such promises are in the Books or the Ghita, I’d love to see them,

But it is always the case that religious authorities interpret the commandments of “worship” or “prayer” as being such activity, which ensures success, by some supernatural power …

They make such claims to attract desperate people, to gain their allegiance …

And again in this case: if you say to those religious authorities: is it OK if I practise the rituals under the sponsorship of this other house which also prescribes them? they will be angry,

And although I haven’t read the Dharma, I have “faith” that the Dharma also points to reason only, and to steer away from ritualistic practices …

Such beliefs existed in heathen cultures long before any religion was taught,

So, how can changing the rituals and the recited words make a difference …? one can’t but ask,

And how come the style of architecture and decorations, and the dressing styles of the clergy and the practitioners: make a difference? as if god and the heaven are a brand …

In fact, the Books of religions, without an exception, came to put an end to irrationality, and to teach the causes to things and to call to reason,

And if the believers in rituals look into the effectiveness of their practices: they will find no evidence to it whatsoever,

And it is everyone’s personal duty to rid themselves of them, and admittedly, this is not always an easy task,

As for the outcome of them in the afterlife: while we’re here on earth: no one has any proof to their rituals’ guarantees and effectiveness, and the multitude of claims and offers invites the rational mind to dismiss them all … and indeed to laugh at them,

As for prayers, those have the highest of purposes, as explained in a previous post,

Prayers, meditation and Sabbath are in fact an attempt to total freedom from mundane engagements,

How can they be an enhancement of them?

When people practise them sincerely they do not for the purpose of buying favours on earth or in the hereafter: they do because they want to,

People need an empowerment in their daily activities, however,

The human psyche’s complexity is far to the reach of psychoanalytical examination, and doesn’t have buttons which can be switched on or off …

People have to examine themselves, to figure out what empowers them, so that the mustering of willpower and desire to carry out something: can happen under their own control and watch …

For this purpose, if they feel for example that reciting verses of their Books in the depths of their hearts empowers them, or simply being alone to focus their emotions, or whatever they do that works for them …: they can do it, without consulting religious or psychological authorities …

And you see secular and religionless people: doing their things, successfully and happily, without resorting to rituals …

Of course, religions will pull out their ready answer: god is just deferring them to judgment day, we’ll witness their suffering and we’ll say to them: we told you …!

The best plan and attitude to ensure the success of an activity is to understand the laws that govern it, and to do it with the good intent: of benefit to all and harm to no one …

Those components of virtuous action are universal,

But it doesn’t mean they will guarantee success,

There are factors that escape one or cannot be had under one’s control,

When failure happens, it should be accepted open-mindedly and wholeheartedly,

Here, faith and blind faith come into play, which will be in the next post …

Action and Inaction (39)

If we want to examine “faith” outside the contexts of religions, faith is trust,

Trust with a tinge of intuition and unprovability,

And like “awe”, this is human aptitude and capability,

One that should not be looked down on as a primitive need that should be stifled,

And when an ideology claims mastery over it or freedom from it: it just turns the focus of faith onto itself, giving it a new dictionary definition,

The intellect is the master of self-deception, as has been said many times on this Page,

Religions, however, are still the main claimants of being the holders of “faith”,

With each religion having invested the power of faith in its own belief, laws and traditions …

To the followers of a religion, faith is in the truthfulness of their belief, based on their understanding of their Book, by the teaching of their prophets or gurus …

And that it points them to the ultimate truth,

And that their salvation is possible only by it,

And that their laws and traditions are most virtuous and most correct,

And that one day the whole world will have to adopt them,

And that their places of worship and holy places are very special,

And that their rituals are holy, and their symbols and decorations are spiritual, whereas other religions’ are pagan and evil …

Such is a recipe for self-selection, which, in tough circumstances, in the minds of simple people …: translates to hatred to other religions and indeed discrimination against them and racism …

Religions will never be able to prove the exclusive correctness of their belief or their superiority, because this is not factual,

And the supernatural support each religion has been waiting for: will not materialise,

In fact, their self-proclaimed exclusiveness is not told in any of their Books,

It is the interpretation of their masters over the past millennia, meant to insure their survival and continuance,

It has no place in the intricate and interdependent world of today’s,

In fact, it is causing trouble,

But when they realise that the power of faith is same in all of them:

Their faith should be invested in their human mind, capable of having “faith”, same in all of them,

And that the purpose of “faith” is the good for every one and guidance,

And that human life is not purposeless, or an evil that should be ended,

If people want to have it under the auspices of a particular religion: they are free to have it,

If they want it free from religion: they are free to have it,

What binds them all and is same in all of them is their human mind, capable of faith, and can be trained to be rational

Action and Inaction (40)

Upon examination and contemplation, the difference between theist and atheist religions can perhaps be noted and summarised,

That theist religions are awed beforehand by the creation, and have faith that there’s a Creator of it …

And that atheist religions experience beforehand one’s own suffering of vainness of impermanence, and empathise thus with all beings, and have faith that the mind can be trained to put an end to its own and every other being’s suffering …

These are not philosophic premises, but rather states of awareness and emotion, resulting from many lives' experiences, briefly being relived in the now of the present …

Books of Abrahamic religions praise the Creator, admire His Might and Capability, love His Creation, admit to their ignorance and weakness, submit to His Will, beg Him forgiveness for their errors and imperfections, beseech Him for His Contentment with them, pray to Him to bestow on them a good life in this one and the hereafter …

The Ghita also, although the Ghita sees the Creator in every mote of the entire universe …, thus seeks Union with Him …, while Abrahamic religions take an esoteric approach …

In both, however, there is a great degree of admiration and awe, faith and submission, reverence and obedience …

In Buddhism, the inquisition is directed inwardly,

This is where thoughts and emotions begin and end, including those of religions, and indeed action and inaction,

Thus, all those are seen vain, when the Noble Truths are known,

Impermanence, suffering, attachment …: are the symptoms of this universal phenomenon,

Hence, freedom from them will reveal the true nature of the mind,

The two seemingly opposing approaches: gradually overlap upon pursuance, should concur in One Point, if pursuance faithfully continues,

In fact, any pursuit of knowledge: will have to come to the same point, if no milestone along the way is taken for a final destination …

The politicisation of religion is the real divider of religions,

Time is showing the religions of the world that none of them is absolutely right and none is absolutely wrong,

They all have built virtuous societies and nations at some point in the past, when the circumstances were favourable, and when the inspiration was taken …

There’s no political solution to their differences and competitions,

But faith in the truthfulness of all the Books of the Middle East and the Far East should invite them all to remove the obstacles between them in their minds,

And to look at their laws and traditions as a rather physical phenomenon,

Just like some nations are deserts, some are snowy,

Some are mountainous, and some are flat …

Circumstances and surroundings: dictate frames of mind and ways of life,

Those are transient,

Even the languages in which their Holy Books and Discourse are written,

The Essence, however, is One in all,

And the pursuit to approach it is a personal choice,

No one can be forced to pursue it or prevented from it,

The best thing all religions can do now is to remove the barriers between, so that the major political tensions in the world can be thwarted,

And so that efforts and emotional energies are directed at making everyone’s life easy,

Because: whether they can see it or not: if misery and suffering are inflicted on others: they will soon reverse their course and inflict the initiator of them,

This can be clearly demonstrated in the conflicts of nations,

If atheist ideologies can’t see that there is a conscious power above the world, conscious in the same way humans are, - and COB agrees with this premise -: they have to look for justice that is enforced by the physical laws …

Action and reaction are a universal existential law,

Once truly known: cooperation becomes the norm in human relations

Action and Inaction (41)

A lot of study and analysis of fear have been done,

Fear is an emotion that sets off and drives often irrational action,

Those who practise meditation can perhaps understand fear better than the followers of Abrahamic religions or the materialists,

The followers of religion will reduce all fear to that of their god,

That god is mighty and arbitrary, and the devil that he created is meant to divert people from the straight path, so they suffer and end up in hell,

While the materialists and evolutionists see that fear is just a self-protective emotion, born in the natural instinct of survival,

This second approach is more realistic than the misconception of Abrahamic religions’,

Indeed, the arbitrariness of the gods of Abrahamic religions, as perceived by the interpreters of the Books: is itself the punishment that those Books have promised, if faith and reason aren’t adopted:

The residence in hell, guarded by torturers and ruthless demons, where, as soon as the skin has been cooked, a new skin is created - hinting to the constant cycle of rebirth - : for those who were tempted by the devil to continue suffering forever …,

And they get it happily and ask for more: not knowing this is actually the sad destiny they’ve been warned about …!

The conception of such a god can never inspire justice:

If god himself is arbitrary and sadistic: we, they think, as his chosen people have the right to exercise some of his arbitrariness and sadism on his behalf,

That’s why Abrahamic religions are ruthless and unforgiving in their dealings and their wars with one another, exercising their right to “punish”, awarded to them by their clergy and political leaders …

Their few historically known leaders who ruled with compassion and justice are the truly faithful,

But their legacy is being totally obscured by today’s madness of hatred and vengefulness,

To the materialists, although the fallacies of religions are put to rest, the morality of the survival of the fittest much inspires constant fear,

Fear of the others, who are certainly plotting against us, they think,

And we should be proactive, they think, and plot ahead of them,

This is how personal as well as international and group relations never progress towards reconciliation, and suspicion fuels the continuation of disaccord and animosity,

And we witness this firsthand in the constantly deteriorating relations between religions and nations,

I don’t know what it will take to break this vicious cycle: no sooner a conflict is resolved than another one is conceived: in the minds which can thrive only in conflict,

They find inspiration in it and motivation,

The good people of the world, scattered everywhere, have to make this transition from the law of the jungle to the law of the human,

With their good intent and open-heartedness: they will overcome, with no action and no inaction, but only reason and cooperation

Action and Inaction (42)

The study of the human mind, the examination of its moods and feelings … can be taken as a purpose of life, or at least a major one amongst others,

In any case: all envisaged purposes of life will merge in one purpose, when the mind-self-expression is known …

The self-examiner can follow the footsteps of the Books and the great teachers, but at some point, they’ll find themselves on their own pathway, one that is parallel to millions of others, although all merging in one …

Along the way the observations differ, and so do the actions or words expressing them …

So, you’ll find a teacher saying: there are so many kinds of consciousnesses, or so many kinds of emotions and so on …

All such observations are true, but not as a final settlement,

In any case: no wording or expression of a final settlement is absolute truth,

All such teachings therefore can be taken seriously and trusted, and can perhaps help the inquisitor find their own way,

In this respect I find the Ghita’s summarisation most helpful, in that it sees that there are basically two modes of “feelings”: one of attraction and one of repulsion,

From those two, myriads of feelings and thoughts emerge, so diverse that the intellect gets bogged down upon studying them …

Such two opposing “feelings” can be said the primary experience of dual existence,

The attraction or the affinity can be said the longing to the One Origin,

The repulsion can be said from the “unknown” and the fear thereof,

Where does the “unknown” come from? the mind/intellect never ceases to ask …

Such thoughts and emotions are the self-protection of the self, while inquisitiveness never ceases,

And the temptation of the dual experience: as in pleasure and pain …: can be said what is generally called evil in religions, symbolised differently in different mythologies and religions …

Evil, because in them the mind traps itself, in dungeons hard to exit,

But then the Hikmah of the Druze spoke of the Eight Dimensions of the mind, which were also alluded to in the Qur’an,

Those were not alien to prior religions and existential philosophies, but were explicitly named therein,

The intellectualisation of such realities will always fall short of absolute truthfulness, and every time new light is shed or expressed: it is only a new intellectual and philosophical perspective; and hence the pursuit of knowledge should never stop on the premise that this or that religion or philosophy has brought the final and absolute truth, let’s all have a rest now and wait for the final judgement …

COB has argued that the Dimensions of Mind be seen from an inward perspective, rather than as mythological personalities who manifest and go …, while not trying to contradict that concept,

It hence said that the Dimensions of Mind are Mind, Self, Expression or Word, Faith, Intellect, Inspiration as in the ability to take sudden leaps of knowledge, Perseverance as in acquiring skills and habits, and Imagination,

The eight dimensions of the human mind set out and guide all action and inaction, and once recognised: virtuous action and inaction is of the moment and on the way

Action and Inaction (43)

In the end, people, as individuals or groups, cannot judge one another, by any criterion they consider,

If they want to critique others, they have to provide reasons,

The teaching of the Books of all religions should be taken as personal guidance, in whatever it is that they do or refrain from doing …

If leaders of nations take a particular Book as their guidance and inspiration: it is by the virtuousness of their actions that Time judges them, not by the religious title they have awarded themselves or their religious belonging …

If they choose universal values and reason as their guidance, also the virtuousness of their actions is what the values they’ve adopted translate to …

Religions’ race to prove to the world that they, each religion, are best and most correct, and have all the answers and explanations to human misery and happiness, ignorance and savviness …: is a futile activity,

It is most sorrowful, when supposedly highly religious and enlightened people: are oblivious of their own intellectual and spiritual shortcomings, unnoticing the ills they warn their disciples about: still in themselves, manifesting in words they say and actions,

That is because their self-contentment in their world is the curtain they draw before their vision,

Many of them are still holding on to some secret prophecy which promises them victory or salvation and holiness …

All such prophecies have been misinterpreted, and all covenants have been dishonoured, there’s nothing that will protect people now except their good intent and openheartedness