The Nature of Current Reality
by Ra-Harakhte
The actions we choose in our life are based on our mental attitudes, beliefs, and emotions. Any of these three can lead to an event or circumstance. Let's look at each of these individually.
ATTITUDE
A mental position or feeling in regards to an object. In other words, when it comes to perceiving life, you can either be negative about it or positive. You can have the attitude "Why do these things always happen to me" or "Everyday I wake up feeling happy to be alive." In either case, such ways of thinking can either hinder you in your ability to handle your affairs, or help you. Of course, attitude is oftentimes guided and supplemented by:
BELIEFS
Ideas that are held as convictions of truth (whether they really be true or not, I might add). Psychologists have tons of literature on how beliefs can limit us. A child, if told over and over he is a brat, he will undoubtedly do things which he knows are wrong, but fulfills that belief because, from what he's been told, he cannot be any other way. Repetition has led to his belief that he is a brat. Likewise, many people would like to be rich, but on the other hand they have the belief that to be that way, you must be a snob, cold, and ruthless. Well, who wants to be like that? Then they wonder why they still live paycheck to paycheck. See how this system works? And to top it off, our beliefs and attitudes are generally tagged with
EMOTION
An intense feeling. These feelings generally supplement beliefs, or sometimes form them. For instance, people are lashing out at each other for money because of the belief it can make them happy (or gives them thoughts of what they can do which provide them with happiness). But yet if they believe you have to be a snob to be rich, they also curb back a negative emotion as well. So now they have two extremes in thought battling it out inside their minds which will guide them into whatever events and circumstances weigh in with the most powerful beliefs and attitudes. This is how individual reality and perception of the world is formed. In a nutshell:
With that in mind, we can take it a step further with this question: We know each person has their own attitudes, beliefs and emotions, but what if a whole group had the same as well? This is where society comes in. Especially in the topic of spirituality and existence.
Society, both on the surface and indepth is the result of mass consciousness and mass belief. And everyone contributes to it -- since societies are non-existent without the inclusion of each individual, everyone plays a a part in its design and operation.
When a society starts going downhill, then the three aspects of Reality must be examined and altered on a mass level. For instance, most U.S. societies view teen-agers as uncontrollable misfits, and likewise, most teen-agers view adults as uncompromising and inflexible. It's no wonder there's so much friction between so many teen-agers and adults. Coupled with still other stimuli and radical beliefs, usually negative in aspects of the teen-ager, it's no wonder gangs have cropped up and why there is so much negativity in the youth culture.
Teen-agers are usually told they are "still too young to know (basically stupid), you can't do this and that." And since these generally come from the adult-age group, we can understand their rebellious nature. Every life form, including human beings, must be allowed some measure of freedom to explore, otherwise, it does hinder the individual spirit and its natural tendencies of growth through exploration. Evolution itself cannot happen without the freedom to explore through the context of Time.
Adults also have their own negative stimuli. Some of it may be from previous feelings and beliefs carried over from their youth, too. See how all this comes together?
Self-belief and self-esteem really become an issue as each day passes. As our emotions become more and more inflamed and fueled by the daily onslaught of ideas and more radical perceptions as dished out by our already extreme and oftentimes overzealous society, our actions to these stimuli will also become overzealous and radical. Hence murder, rape, and other forms of carnage.
Today's Church would have us believe that by attending their services, we can achieve salvation by the learning of good moral values. What they are suggesting is that if you don't attend, you don't have any values and you are falling prey to the evils of society. This, of course, simply is just not true. Though each individual does make up society, each individual isn't necessarily "sucked in" to its "evil" ways. There are many non-churchgoers who are just as virtuous and even more caring than some of their religious countemporaries.
Let me explain.
Again, the basic underlying tenet of all Christian doctrine is the belief that you are born a sinner. Now, if you are taught that belief from an early age, you are no doubt giving your life over to it, and hence your mind will control your actions. Granted, you may also build a very strong belief that you are "saved," but if you still believe you are a "sinner," you are presupposing that whatever you do will turn out to be wrong or evil. And with that in mind, you will no doubt do those things (given the time to dwell and nurture that idea). On a societal level, if everyone believed everyone else was a sinner, imagine how society would operate. Well, you don't have to imagine it -- just look at it right now!
Though there are many other ideas and beliefs which do contribute to society's backward ways, we must remember that most people place their relationship with the Divine at the top of their list or priorities, which means their ideas of spirituality and concept of personal sin are also at the top of that list, whether they realize it consciously or not. Thus the Church's contribution to our wailing ways. But again, all we have to do is realize that these thoughts are just ideas passed down from a culture two thousand years ago that was captured and conquered so many times, and was persecuted for so long, that the only perception they could have about humanity was that It Was Born To Sin. Our current ideas, having come from the past, are the chains which bind us; unfortunately, they are so ancient, they key to our release is only a thought away, and so many people refuse to see it.
In all honesty, the world will never come together, nor will anyone be willing to accept the other until such racist and bigoted ideas such as Saint and Sinner are dissolved. Unfortunately, the modern Church depends on that separation for its survival. If there weren't that division of Saints and Sinners, it wouldn't have a purpose or a job. Well, we need to forgo the necessity of a job and understand the true mission of spirituality, the very reason the Church was supposed to have come into existence in the first place.
Though we may live in a world of opposites: male and female, light and dark, good and bad, all these are concepts as related to us by our senses and ideas. Ultimately, they are all the same thing, coming from the same source. Our separation of them is strictly by convenience, but this separation of Saints and Sinners is one of inconvenience. It is but another roadblock on the highway to spirituality. We cannot expect the world to come together so long as we condemn one single person to the tag of Sinner, while at the same time elevate another to Saint. Nobody is one or the other.
We must love one another and forgive, because each of us is part of the same energy, the same force of Creation.
copyright 1998 by Ra-Harakhte (Ra-Harakhte@webtv.net)
We can all be free and pure, and even angelic once we grasp and become the idea of not being evil, but having the choice to do good and do it. Right now, we are not given that choice by current spiritual centers, we are simply sinners and presupposed to automatically choose the side of evil and wrong. But again, this is not true. And since we have the choice to do good, we must find the sources of which might make us feel the need to do "evil" and examine them. Change them. Get rid of them. With this conclusion, we can rapidly grow and become the true enlightened beings of spirituality that we truly are.
Remember:
Your thoughts, beliefs, and emotions create your reality. If your reality isn't the way you want it, then you need to examine those three things and change them.
