80 Questions on What’s Real and What to Do About It
Most of these 80 Questions on the nature of reality and the spiritual life were composed by Marty Glass; the rest are by Charles Upton. Our plan is to gather Wisdom from any and every source, realizing that spiritual “authorities” are not always what they seem nowadays, and that spiritual knowledge and vision are now widely diffused (though still not terribly thick on the ground for all that) among people who may or may not have reliable ways of relating to each other, or even anybody to talk to about their insights. We’ll post the answers we like best on this website, and once we get enough material we’ll submit it for possible publication in book form to Sophia Perennis Publications.
As for our own perspective, we are more partial to the traditional religions and wisdom traditions than we are to the New Age or Neo-Paganism or this or that non-traditional form of “generic” metaphysics, but we’ll accept answers from anywhere or anyone so long as they resonate with our sense of truth, or express the kind of musings, dilemmas, and conclusions that anyone who is serious about the spiritual life—or serious about life—is likely to express or respond to.
Participate
Add your reply below. You can answer one question, or several of them, or even all of them. You can answer briefly, or at length. We would love to hear your thoughts. Your reply will be published after the moderator’s approval (to prevent spam and off-topic comments).
The 80 Questions:
- Is this a Creation or just some kind of place?
- Was or is there a Creator? Or a Big Bang? Or, in some way or other, has everything always been here?
- Are things getting better or are they getting worse? Both?
- Is epidemic depression and bipolar misery caused by chemical imbalance or by residence in some kind of baffling hell?
- What do they mean when they say it’s self-evident that “the world begins in Perfection”?
- Do we all have an eternal primordial divine Birthright of some kind, or are we nothing more than our ambiguous incoherent contested biographies?
- How can I ever hope to cope with the colossal aggravating Problem of Good and Evil?
- Is virtue rewarded and vice punished? How can we identify virtue and vice? Do bad people get away with it – as it often seems – and good innocent people get screwed – as it seems even more often?
- If there is a God, does He or She really care about us? Even know about us? It really doesn’t seem that way! An “Infinite Benevolence”? Convince me.
- Was there really some kind of Fall, some kind of Fall from Grace? When? Why? And if so, can anything be done about it? And does it hit all of us, even the kids?
- Did Christ really perform all those miracles?
- Is there such a thing as Sin? Am I a sinner? How can you tell?
- What do people mean when they say things like “This is all an illusion”?
- Archfiend? Adversary? The Devil? Antichrist? Old Nick? What am I supposed to make of that kind of talk? Is the Devil my ego? The ego of society? Or is he “really out there”? Am I supposed to fight him? If so, how?
- Is it good or bad to be passionate? I hear conflicting opinions.
- Am I nothing but a character in a “cosmic dream”? What am I then? Where am I? Am I anyone at all?
- Is it good to suffer? How so? And why do I suffer? I always try to do the right thing! And what exactly am I supposed to learn from suffering? Am I “undergoing purification” or “screwing up” or just hurting for no particular reason? Are the apparently happy people actually enlightened saints? Successful fulfillers of our common human desires? Lucky bastards? Mindless idiots?
- Was Christ really God? Did He come back from the dead?
- Are there statements that are really true, absolutely indisputably eternally true, or is everything just relative? How can I know the Truth? And then what should I do?
- Do I have to be conservative if I’m religious? Can I be a “universalist”? Do I have to be faithful to only one religion? Can I be all three, or any two, at the same time?
- Which is smart? Austerity or the pursuit of happiness? Are they ever the same thing?
- What am I supposed to renounce, and why? From what should I be detached? And why? Do I get anything in exchange, any compensation? Is it worth it?
- Chastity, Poverty and Obedience? (Why not add Suicide?) Is it ever a good idea to deny myself the goods of life? Is it ever a good idea to turn my decision-making power over to somebody else? When do these things work, if they ever do, and what are they supposed to accomplish? When and how do they go wrong?
- Do I have an immortal soul? Is there an afterlife? What is Death?
- What about this reincarnation business, metempsychosis, transmigration, former lives? Do I actually inherit the consequences of behavior in earlier lifetimes? “My” behavior or somebody else’s?
- Is there retribution? A Heaven and a Hell? Post-mortem Judgment?
- Is evolution true? Did we evolve from protoplasm through fish and apes to what we are now? Or were we always human? This is a Big One for me!
- Is there any point in praying? Are prayers answered?
- Is there really some kind of “Art of Dying”?
- If I’ve said or done something I know was bad, is there forgiveness? How will I know if I’ve been forgiven? Or do I have to pay off my “karmic debt” all by myself?
- Are some people living the right way and some people the wrong way?
- How can I know God is real, God exists?
- How do we go about “loving God”? Or loving Christ? Or whatever other figure is God for me, or His/Her representative?
- If life is a test, how do I pass it? If it’s a lesson, what am I supposed to learn? If it’s an illusion, how do I find reality? In other words, I guess, what is Wisdom?
- What is this “inward dragon” I’m supposed to kill? How will I know when it’s dead, or only wounded? Can I tame it instead of killing it? Does it ever become my “servant”? The servant of God?
- Why are there different religions? How can they all be true?
- Faith in what? That’s what I want to know! Faith in what?
- Salvation from what? Redemption from what?
- Some people are totally into New Age, others say it’s bullshit. Who’s right? How do you decide? Where is authority on this issue? (The same for Neo-Paganism.)
- We’re supposed to be “whole” people, not fragmented. (I hear a lot about “fractured identity.”) What’s that all about? How do I know which I am?
- I love being alone out in Nature. Am I running away, evading responsibilities, leaving the important work of saving the world to others?
- I have an occasional insistent feeling that there’s something I’m supposed to know that I don’t. An understanding I’m supposed to have, and then I’d finally be happy. Is this true? What am I supposed to know? Something about God?
- Sometimes I feel that everything is crazy or empty or false. Am I right? And if so, what am I supposed to do, how am I supposed to live?
- God is Love, God is Love. I hear that all the time. Does it mean that “God” is just a name we give to love? Or vice versa? What’s the big deal then?
- How the hell am I supposed to love everyone? I know some real sadistic sons of bitches! I’ll never be able to love them! Forgive maybe, but not love. (Or can I? Or should I? Can you love someone by trying?)
- God loves us? Sure doesn’t look like it! Indifferent at best. Just what is God’s relationship to us, as individuals and a collective, and to the world, if He exists at all?
- Are there “other worlds,” invisible, or maybe just barely visible? If these worlds exist, are they “spiritual” or just different? Who or what, if anything, lives there? And does any of this really matter to how I live my life?
- How can I be convinced that religion isn’t just superstition? I guess that’s really the Big Question that haunts me. You know: Science versus Religion. The real bottom line.
- Those Chinese hermit monks talk in all their poems about being drunk on wine. Is that good? In vino veritas: is that true? I hope so! The Sufis also talk about being drunk on wine, though their commentators always explain that it’s really mystical ecstasy, “spiritual” wine they mean. What do you think? And what if wine is not your “substance of choice”?
- I’ve heard Zen people say we’re supposed to be mindless. Mindless?
- Some people say we’re supposed to “see God everywhere”. I’ve tried to give it a shot, but without success. Total failure. Is this really possible? Imagination? Or something that we can’t make happen by ourselves in any case, some unpredictable gift?
- Sometimes I say to myself, “I just want to live in peace.” All the religions, from what I understand, talk a great deal about peace. Infinite Peace. I want it! Where do I begin?
- What is this ego I’m supposed to lose? Who am I who loses it? What’s left?
- Sometimes it all seems to revolve around Ignorance vs. Wisdom. Not exactly a head-scratcher as far as making a choice goes! So where’s Wisdom? Who’s wise?
- The Knower is the Known! The One is the Many! Suchness is the Void! “God became Man that Man might become God”! I need help on this stuff. If everything is God and there is still ignorance and suffering — what hope? If God is totally beyond anything I can ever experience — what hope?
- I hear a lot of loose talk about “The Eternal Now.” “Live in the present!” I am urged. Others tell me, “Go with the flow!” OK: the question behind all this is obvious. What is Time? Reality? Illusion? Something we mistake for something else?
- What is the meaning of “The Absolute”? What does it have to do with me?
- I hear about “The Command to Perfection.” I think I have a long way to go, and everyone I know would agree with me on that one. And I know people who will never get there, forget it. What’s this all about?
- How can I fear God and love God at the same time?
- Can philosophy or theology help me live, or do they tend to get in the way – at least sometimes? Can I first know something “in my head” and later realize it “in my heart” or “in my life”? Or does it have to be the other way around? Or is it really, somehow, simultaneous?
- Do I need a “Spiritual Master”? Where will I find one? How can I tell the phony ones, the charlatans, from the genuine ones? And what about these “inner, spiritual guides” people talk about?
- I hear about “crossing the flood,” the “inner pilgrimage,” the “spiritual journey.” I suppose this refers to a Path, or an aspect of a Path. Where does a spiritual Path begin, and where, if ever, does it end? Do I work or does God lead, or both? Or is it something else entirely?
- Was I created, if I was created, for contemplation or action? If for both, how do they relate?
- The religious texts and teachings are called “revelation,” as if they come direct from “God” and have absolute authority, as if they are the Truth. How can this be verified? How do we know they weren’t just written by nameless sages long ago? Can something written by a human being also somehow have come directly from God?
- Sometimes I hear about some inner secret true teaching called “esoterism,” usually opposed to some “outer” teaching for the simpleminded masses. Is this an analysis of the way God addresses us? There are advanced and backward people? Who judges, who decides?
- What’s the difference between God and something called “the Godhead”? Are there two or one here? Which one do I worship? Is God a Person? A Thing? A Force? A Void? All (or none) of the above?
- Is God really doing everything that happens? Or is He or She just sitting back and watching it all? If God is doing everything, do I still have free will? If God is just watching everything, can He or She still create the universe? Or help me?
- A lot of people put down “organized religion.” Was “organized religion” once OK and then something went wrong? Or is it still OK? Or do I have to decide on a case by case basis? And if so, according to what standards? How can I judge something that I’m supposed to follow?
- A friend of mine once saw a book called The Transcendent Unity of Religions, a book I wish could have been read by the popes who launched the crusades. What is this “transcendent unity”? We clearly have need of its recognition now, in these times. (If you have not heard this term before, or if it baffles you, read on…)
- Did everything go the way it had to go, the only way it could go, or did everything happen by accident and chance? Free will or determinism? Does this have something to do with karma? Is there good karma and bad karma determining the way things go? Is there such a thing as “what might have happened?”
- Democratic institutions seem to me rather inconsistent with the claims of religion to have an inside track on the truth; seems to be a real contradiction there. I think I’d be happier with due process and habeas corpus than with an Inquisition and “papal infallibility.” How should we think about this conundrum? If imperfect human society were governed according to the standards of Absolute Truth, would life be possible? If imperfect human society were governed with no reference to Absolute Truth at all, would life be possible?
- Are there really “god-men”? How can I identify a “cult”? Do the two, god-men and cults, always go together? Are there “hidden” saints or sages? If so, what’s the difference, if any, between them and the Big Names?
- Is there some kind of mysterious occasional affinity between European “religious” intellectuals and ultraconservatism, even fascism? I’m thinking of Eliot, Pound, Yeats, Paul Claudel, Mircea Eliade, Paul DeMan. What happens there?
- Are people basically good or basically bad? Or better stated: What’s basic, what’s the human essence?
- Exactly what is the problem in the world today? Or what are the problems, if there are many? What has gone wrong? And what is it within me that tells me there is something fundamentally wrong, when the whole culture is celebrating itself? Is this a religious question? Furthermore, is the world actually ending? If I knew it was, would that change how I ought to live my life?
- What will guide me in the choices I must make, every day, about my own life, the lives of my children?
- Some people appear satisfied that there is no God, nothing divine. Others suspect there is something but go no further than that, an uneasy suspicion; others wish there were something beyond what we see with our eyes, and pine for evidence. I’m one of the last group. What do I do?
- What is this “perennial philosophy” or “sophia perennis” some people talk about after reading Aldous Huxley or Fithjof Schuon or René Guénon or Huston Smith? A religion?
- What are the experiences in this world that will lead me to what is holy and sacred? How can I select experience with this goal in mind? How shall I interpret experience in a religious manner? Jazz, for example, or European classical music. Are they spiritual? What about the other arts?
- I long for something I cannot define. Something eternal. Something real. Where can I turn?
1. Is this a Creation or just some kind of place?
Self Creating place.
2. Was or is there a Creator? Or a Big Bang? Or, in some way or other, has everything always been here?
Everything that can exist does exist without the constraints of time/space or sequence. The future creates the past, the past creates the future. The experience is always being newly perceived what can be experienced is already infinite and eternal.
3. Are things getting better or are they getting worse? Both?
Depends on who you ask.
4. Is epidemic depression and bipolar misery caused by chemical imbalance or by residence in some kind of baffling hell?
Some are probably chemical imbalances. Other cases are from people who are sensitive living in a depressing world.
5. What do they mean when they say it’s self-evident that “the world begins in Perfection”?
Each moment is complete. It is also always changing. Perfection is lost in mental projections of past or future. But these projections exist now so the world is always beginning and always perfect.
6. Do we all have an eternal primordial divine Birthright of some kind, or are we nothing more than our ambiguous incoherent contested biographies?
Depends on who you ask.
7. How can I ever hope to cope with the colossal aggravating Problem of Good and Evil?
Define good and evil or this question is meaningless.
8. Is virtue rewarded and vice punished? How can we identify virtue and vice? Do bad people get away with it – as it often seems – and good innocent people get screwed – as it seems even more often?
Depends on who you ask. Define rewarded, innocent, virtue and vice and it might be answerable from some perspectives.
9. If there is a God, does He or She really care about us? Even know about us? It really doesn’t seem that way! An “Infinite Benevolence”? Convince me.
Need to define God or this is unanswerable.
10. Was there really some kind of Fall, some kind of Fall from Grace? When? Why? And if so, can anything be done about it? And does it hit all of us, even the kids?
There seems to be in some sense a feeling of separation that happened. This feeling of separateness is the only thing that allows the experience of personal freedom in existence.
11. Did Christ really perform all those miracles?
When you say Christ, I am assuming you mean Jesus. And all anyone can say about Jesus is that some people wrote down that he performed some miracles. Other Shapes Christ has taken have indeed performed miracles.
12. Is there such a thing as Sin? Am I a sinner? How can you tell?
Define sin.
13. What do people mean when they say things like “This is all an illusion”?
They are saying that there are other perspectives of reality that fundamentally contradict the assumptions we make about reality from this perspective.
14. Archfiend? Adversary? The Devil? Antichrist? Old Nick? What am I supposed to make of that kind of talk? Is the Devil my ego? The ego of society? Or is he “really out there”? Am I supposed to fight him? If so, how?
All sports need an opposing team or there is no game.
15. Is it good or bad to be passionate? I hear conflicting opinions.
Define good or bad. Does it make you happy or unhappy. Does it make the people around you happy or unhappy. Does their happiness have influence on your happiness?
16. Am I nothing but a character in a “cosmic dream”? What am I then? Where am I? Am I anyone at all?
If you are a character in a dream then you must be the dreamer. Now bite your own teeth to wake up.
17. Is it good to suffer? How so? And why do I suffer? I always try to do the right thing! And what exactly am I supposed to learn from suffering? Am I “undergoing purification” or “screwing up” or just hurting for no particular reason? Are the apparently happy people actually enlightened saints? Successful fulfillers of our common human desires? Lucky bastards? Mindless idiots?
Do you think its good to suffer? No? Then its not. Change your mind and it changes the answer.
18. Was Christ really God? Did He come back from the dead?
This question assumes there is a difference between death and life from the perspective of Christ. I’m not sure that is a valid assumption.
19. Are there statements that are really true, absolutely indisputably eternally true, or is everything just relative? How can I know the Truth? And then what should I do?
Reality is formed from the interaction of incomparable paradoxes that we exist in between. So no, nothing that can be thought of, experienced, or spoken of is absolutely true.
20. Do I have to be conservative if I’m religious? Can I be a “universalist”? Do I have to be faithful to only one religion? Can I be all three, or any two, at the same time?
You can be what ever you want.
21. Which is smart? Austerity or the pursuit of happiness? Are they ever the same thing?
Depends on who you ask, when you ask, and under what circumstances you ask.
22. What am I supposed to renounce, and why? From what should I be detached? And why? Do I get anything in exchange, any compensation? Is it worth it?
Renounce things that make you unhappy. Detach from things that cause you to suffer if you want. You get happiness and less suffering as compensation. Totally worth it but not in the way you think it is.
23. Chastity, Poverty and Obedience? (Why not add Suicide?) Is it ever a good idea to deny myself the goods of life? Is it ever a good idea to turn my decision-making power over to somebody else? When do these things work, if they ever do, and what are they supposed to accomplish? When and how do they go wrong?
You have to define ‘right’ for yourself before you can say if something went wrong. Actually almost all these questions need a definition of terms or they have an infinite amount of subjective answers. I assume thats what you’re going for maybe?
24. Do I have an immortal soul? Is there an afterlife? What is Death?
Show me your soul. Show me the division between life and death then we can determine if its immortal or if there is an afterlife. Some people think death is when your body stops ‘working’
25. What about this reincarnation business, metempsychosis, transmigration, former lives? Do I actually inherit the consequences of behavior in earlier lifetimes? “My” behavior or somebody else’s?
All lives exist simultaneously. Very few perspectives of reality have ridged linear time the way we do. So reincarnation really needs to be ‘re’-incarnation. Lives can be seen as notes or tuning forks that will resonate with the vibration of your current life. This creates a sort of music.
26. Is there retribution? A Heaven and a Hell? Post-mortem Judgment?
If you think your actions deserve retribution, there will be retribution.
27. Is evolution true? Did we evolve from protoplasm through fish and apes to what we are now? Or were we always human? This is a Big One for me!
Yes, all physical life on earth has multiple clear signs and evidence of relatedness and common ancestry. Why life seems to move toward greater complexity is a much more interesting question.
28. Is there any point in praying? Are prayers answered?
Do you see a point? If so, then there is one. They are answered if they are answered.
29. Is there really some kind of “Art of Dying”?
Everything is Art.
30. If I’ve said or done something I know was bad, is there forgiveness? How will I know if I’ve been forgiven? Or do I have to pay off my “karmic debt” all by myself?
Depends on what game you want to play. There’s lots of options. Karma, Savior, self forgiveness or even some mixture of any and all of these.
31. Are some people living the right way and some people the wrong way?
Thats what alot of people seem to think.
32. How can I know God is real, God exists?
If you experience God, then God is real. If not then who knows?
33. How do we go about “loving God”? Or loving Christ? Or whatever other figure is God for me, or His/Her representative?
Asking someone else how to love someone? Weird.
34. If life is a test, how do I pass it? If it’s a lesson, what am I supposed to learn? If it’s an illusion, how do I find reality? In other words, I guess, what is Wisdom?
Good question. Good luck.
35. What is this “inward dragon” I’m supposed to kill? How will I know when it’s dead, or only wounded? Can I tame it instead of killing it? Does it ever become my “servant”? The servant of God?
This one is going to totally crack you up when you kill it. one of the best Jokes I’ve played so far. So a dragon walks into a bar….
36. Why are there different religions? How can they all be true?
What is true?
37. Faith in what? That’s what I want to know! Faith in what?
huh?
38. Salvation from what? Redemption from what?
What ever you feel you need salvation from and redemption for.
39. Some people are totally into New Age, others say it’s bullshit. Who’s right? How do you decide? Where is authority on this issue? (The same for Neo-Paganism.)
You are the authority. What do you think.
40. We’re supposed to be “whole” people, not fragmented. (I hear a lot about “fractured identity.”) What’s that all about? How do I know which I am?
Are there aspects of yourself you lie about or hide from yourself and other people? If yes, then you are fractured.
41. I love being alone out in Nature. Am I running away, evading responsibilities, leaving the important work of saving the world to others?
Is the world saved through work?
42. I have an occasional insistent feeling that there’s something I’m supposed to know that I don’t. An understanding I’m supposed to have, and then I’d finally be happy. Is this true? What am I supposed to know? Something about God?
Yes and those sneaky sneaky mystery schools are keeping the answer from you.
43. Sometimes I feel that everything is crazy or empty or false. Am I right? And if so, what am I supposed to do, how am I supposed to live?
Then everything is crazy empty and false. I suppose You are supposed to I suppose change everything so that you feel it is what ever it is you want it to feel like.
44. God is Love, God is Love. I hear that all the time. Does it mean that “God” is just a name we give to love? Or vice versa? What’s the big deal then?
I dunno. People like to make a big deal out of things. Remember POGs and MC Hammer? Crazy.
45. How the hell am I supposed to love everyone? I know some real sadistic sons of bitches! I’ll never be able to love them! Forgive maybe, but not love. (Or can I? Or should I? Can you love someone by trying?)
Instead of working on trying to love the unlovable, work on seeing them for what they actually are. The love will follow that naturally.
46. God loves us? Sure doesn’t look like it! Indifferent at best. Just what is God’s relationship to us, as individuals and a collective, and to the world, if He exists at all?
Need to know what you mean by “God”.
47. Are there “other worlds,” invisible, or maybe just barely visible? If these worlds exist, are they “spiritual” or just different? Who or what, if anything, lives there? And does any of this really matter to how I live my life?
There are sensory impressions that do indeed lead one to think there are other more subtle worlds from the perspective of this world. Think of your 5 senses as being really really loud and distracting. The other worlds are quiet and dont draw attention to themselves. It matters to some people.
48. How can I be convinced that religion isn’t just superstition? I guess that’s really the Big Question that haunts me. You know: Science versus Religion. The real bottom line.
You can be convinced how ever you are convinced. Weird question.
49. Those Chinese hermit monks talk in all their poems about being drunk on wine. Is that good? In vino veritas: is that true? I hope so! The Sufis also talk about being drunk on wine, though their commentators always explain that it’s really mystical ecstasy, “spiritual” wine they mean. What do you think? And what if wine is not your “substance of choice”?
Substance of Choice for what? They all alter your perception of reality in a different way. Depends one what the desire is at the time really.
50. I’ve heard Zen people say we’re supposed to be mindless. Mindless?
Mu
51. Some people say we’re supposed to “see God everywhere”. I’ve tried to give it a shot, but without success. Total failure. Is this really possible? Imagination? Or something that we can’t make happen by ourselves in any case, some unpredictable gift?
Truth is both form and space. Most people only pay attention to Form.
52. Sometimes I say to myself, “I just want to live in peace.” All the religions, from what I understand, talk a great deal about peace. Infinite Peace. I want it! Where do I begin?
Then just live in peace. You are the master who makes the grass green. Who makes you peaceful? Who makes you un-peaceful?
53. What is this ego I’m supposed to lose? Who am I who loses it? What’s left?
Dont worry about this one unless you are actually suicidal.
54. Sometimes it all seems to revolve around Ignorance vs. Wisdom. Not exactly a head-scratcher as far as making a choice goes! So where’s Wisdom? Who’s wise?
Depends on who you see as wise. This will constantly evolve.
55. The Knower is the Known! The One is the Many! Suchness is the Void! “God became Man that Man might become God”! I need help on this stuff. If everything is God and there is still ignorance and suffering — what hope? If God is totally beyond anything I can ever experience — what hope?
God is beyond anything ‘you’ can experience. Again, I’d drop this one unless you have a death wish.
56. I hear a lot of loose talk about “The Eternal Now.” “Live in the present!” I am urged. Others tell me, “Go with the flow!” OK: the question behind all this is obvious. What is Time? Reality? Illusion? Something we mistake for something else?
Time is a way of looking at something really big. Reality is anything that can be thought of or experienced. And when people say something about illusion its just a fancy way of saying there is another way of seeing things that they prefer over how you are seeing them.
57. What is the meaning of “The Absolute”? What does it have to do with me?
Vodka?
58. I hear about “The Command to Perfection.” I think I have a long way to go, and everyone I know would agree with me on that one. And I know people who will never get there, forget it. What’s this all about?
Hey you just figured out the secret to how and why there is an ever becoming ‘creation’
59. How can I fear God and love God at the same time?
You cant.
60. Can philosophy or theology help me live, or do they tend to get in the way – at least sometimes? Can I first know something “in my head” and later realize it “in my heart” or “in my life”? Or does it have to be the other way around? Or is it really, somehow, simultaneous?
Sure.
61. Do I need a “Spiritual Master”? Where will I find one? How can I tell the phony ones, the charlatans, from the genuine ones? And what about these “inner, spiritual guides” people talk about?
Everyone loves a cheer leader!
62. I hear about “crossing the flood,” the “inner pilgrimage,” the “spiritual journey.” I suppose this refers to a Path, or an aspect of a Path. Where does a spiritual Path begin, and where, if ever, does it end? Do I work or does God lead, or both? Or is it something else entirely?
All paths lead to the same place. Nowhere. the real question is does this path have heart.
63. Was I created, if I was created, for contemplation or action? If for both, how do they relate?
What do you seem to be doing? That is probably why you were created or decided to exist.
64. The religious texts and teachings are called “revelation,” as if they come direct from “God” and have absolute authority, as if they are the Truth. How can this be verified? How do we know they weren’t just written by nameless sages long ago? Can something written by a human being also somehow have come directly from God?
Are Myths true? Do stories contain Truth? Is Truth found in what is ‘true’? Good questions!
65. Sometimes I hear about some inner secret true teaching called “esoterism,” usually opposed to some “outer” teaching for the simpleminded masses. Is this an analysis of the way God addresses us? There are advanced and backward people? Who judges, who decides?
Can God convince himself that he is ignorant and powerless?
66. What’s the difference between God and something called “the Godhead”? Are there two or one here? Which one do I worship? Is God a Person? A Thing? A Force? A Void? All (or none) of the above?
If you and what ever Gody void head thing you are interacting with like worship then I say go for it.
67. Is God really doing everything that happens? Or is He or She just sitting back and watching it all? If God is doing everything, do I still have free will? If God is just watching everything, can He or She still create the universe? Or help me?
One could say that God is the only Noun. Everything else you could ever think of or do is a verb.
68. A lot of people put down “organized religion.” Was “organized religion” once OK and then something went wrong? Or is it still OK? Or do I have to decide on a case by case basis? And if so, according to what standards? How can I judge something that I’m supposed to follow?
Does it make you happy? Does it make those around you happy? Does it give you clarity, insight and understanding to your life? Do you see yourself progressing with more ease as a result of the religion? If yes then, high five.
69. A friend of mine once saw a book called The Transcendent Unity of Religions, a book I wish could have been read by the popes who launched the crusades. What is this “transcendent unity”? We clearly have need of its recognition now, in these times. (If you have not heard this term before, or if it baffles you, read on…)
Start seeing everything as a Verb for great victory. -ING is the greatest mantra.
70. Did everything go the way it had to go, the only way it could go, or did everything happen by accident and chance? Free will or determinism? Does this have something to do with karma? Is there good karma and bad karma determining the way things go? Is there such a thing as “what might have happened?”
Everything goes every possible way it can go. Pick which one you want to see.
71. Democratic institutions seem to me rather inconsistent with the claims of religion to have an inside track on the truth; seems to be a real contradiction there. I think I’d be happier with due process and habeas corpus than with an Inquisition and “papal infallibility.” How should we think about this conundrum? If imperfect human society were governed according to the standards of Absolute Truth, would life be possible? If imperfect human society were governed with no reference to Absolute Truth at all, would life be possible?
Only people who misunderstand believe in anything other than ever fluid, ever changing truth. So of course trying to freeze it at any point is going to cause problems.
72. Are there really “god-men”? How can I identify a “cult”? Do the two, god-men and cults, always go together? Are there “hidden” saints or sages? If so, what’s the difference, if any, between them and the Big Names?
There are hidden Guru’s everywhere. One made you lunch last week.
73. Is there some kind of mysterious occasional affinity between European “religious” intellectuals and ultraconservatism, even fascism? I’m thinking of Eliot, Pound, Yeats, Paul Claudel, Mircea Eliade, Paul DeMan. What happens there?
Huh?
74. Are people basically good or basically bad? Or better stated: What’s basic, what’s the human essence?
Do Good and Bad exist with out you to categorize things?
75. Exactly what is the problem in the world today? Or what are the problems, if there are many? What has gone wrong? And what is it within me that tells me there is something fundamentally wrong, when the whole culture is celebrating itself? Is this a religious question? Furthermore, is the world actually ending? If I knew it was, would that change how I ought to live my life?
What do you see as a problem? that is probably the problem in the world. If the world was ending, and it changed how you lived, its a good indication that your path has no heart and is focused on the destination.
76. What will guide me in the choices I must make, every day, about my own life, the lives of my children?
What ever you allow to guide you.
77. Some people appear satisfied that there is no God, nothing divine. Others suspect there is something but go no further than that, an uneasy suspicion; others wish there were something beyond what we see with our eyes, and pine for evidence. I’m one of the last group. What do I do?
Learn to see with something beyond your eyes and hear with something beyond your ears.
78. What is this “perennial philosophy” or “sophia perennis” some people talk about after reading Aldous Huxley or Fithjof Schuon or René Guénon or Huston Smith? A religion?
I think its a bunch of intellectual masturbation. People that just like to hear themselves talk. Which is fine. We all have hobbies. Better than Porn some might say.
79. What are the experiences in this world that will lead me to what is holy and sacred? How can I select experience with this goal in mind? How shall I interpret experience in a religious manner? Jazz, for example, or European classical music. Are they spiritual? What about the other arts?
What do you find to be art? that will probably point to what you find to be spiritual.
80. I long for something I cannot define. Something eternal. Something real. Where can I turn?
Focus or move in the direction of the Longing. See what happens. You’ll probably be able to write a book about it. Let me know how it works out.
This is wonderful, playful, real.
<>
Maybe, but become aware of it and recognise your susceptibility to manipulation at the hand of other ‘cosmic characters’, seen and unseen. Dream lucidly, but cautiously, lest your dream be a nightmare.
<>
Yes, I’ll buy your brain for $20.
“You can take my brain, but you’ll never take my mind!” Why not? Either because you’re mindless, or because your mind is not in your skull.
Think about it, zen you will understand.
16. Am I nothing but a character in a “cosmic dream”? What am I then? Where am I? Am I anyone at all?
Maybe, but that doesn’t make you any less solid, or susceptible to manipulation by other ‘cosmic characters’. So dream lucidly, but cautiously, or else risk encountering adversaries, both visible and unseen.
50. I’ve heard Zen people say we’re supposed to be mindless. Mindless?
Yes, I’ll buy your brain for $20.
“You can take my brain, but you’ll never take my mind!” Why not? Either because you’re mindless, or because your mind is not in your skull.
Think about it, zen you will understand.
Could not resist it…first 20 answers
1. Is this a Creation or just some kind of place?
It’s both and more. As long as it is approached from the point of view of separation; that is there and I am here there will be no sense of what it actually is. At best, it’s here, as am I and you and everything else. Start there. Finish there. Be there.
2. Was or is there a Creator? Or a Big Bang? Or, in some way or other, has everything always been here?
Whether or not it has been the only response I can truly give is that it is there. At least I am.
3. Are things getting better or are they getting worse? Both?
Things are what they are they haven’t changed.
4. Is epidemic depression and bipolar misery caused by chemical imbalance or by residence in some kind of baffling hell?
Yes. And no. If you look at it as, I am depressed, or I am happy, it will be a baffling hell, if you look at it from the point of view of yourself it is a combination of chemical imbalances, past behaviour and beliefs that you are something you are not. Be who you are.
5. What do they mean when they say it’s self-evident that “the world begins in Perfection”?
Perfection is reality, it doesn’t change, it is what it is. It is the sense of observation that distorts reality. It is this distortion that confuses reality for a descent from Perfection. It never ceases to be perfect. Ignorance reckons it does.
6. Do we all have an eternal primordial divine Birthright of some kind, or are we nothing more than our ambiguous incoherent contested biographies?
I’m certainly not a library, nor am I a creation. I have no need of birthrights or contestation. It’s ignorance that causes this, as if I am separate from what I am.
7. How can I ever hope to cope with the colossal aggravating Problem of Good and Evil?
When a mind is mistaking itself for reality it will tend one way then another. When more than one mind does this the problem of evil arises.
8. Is virtue rewarded and vice punished? How can we identify virtue and vice? Do bad people get away with it – as it often seems – and good innocent people get screwed – as it seems even more often?
Yes, but not by God. A mind that thinks, acts and desires will ignore everything it isn’t. Namely what it is.
9. If there is a God, does He or She really care about us? Even know about us? It really doesn’t seem that way! An “Infinite Benevolence”? Convince me.
There is only reality. The rest is ignorance. Be who you are. Don’t worry about God. God takes care of everything. Why carry your luggage on the train?
10. Was there really some kind of Fall, some kind of Fall from Grace? When? Why? And if so, can anything be done about it? And does it hit all of us, even the kids?
This is just an explanation, a door stop. It keeps the door open. The fall from Grace is the acceptance of the illusion for the Reality. It’s a gift. Let’s worry about our Self then about our kids. That’s what can be done about it.
11. Did Christ really perform all those miracles?
Yes, is as good an answer as no.
12. Is there such a thing as Sin? Am I a sinner? How can you tell?
No there isn’t. How can that be real?
13. What do people mean when they say things like “This is all an illusion”?
They mean that it is not Real. But they approach it from the perspective that generates the illusion. Of course it is there. So are they. But what they see isn’t what it is.
14. Archfiend? Adversary? The Devil? Antichrist? Old Nick? What am I supposed to make of that kind of talk? Is the Devil my ego? The ego of society? Or is he “really out there”? Am I supposed to fight him? If so, how?
No you are not supposed to fight the devil, any more than you are supposed to worship God. It is about YOU no one else, who are YOU, what are YOU, where are YOU, or should I say who am I?
15. Is it good or bad to be passionate? I hear conflicting opinions.
Good and bad are states of mind. Is what you are doing good to you? If not stop it.
16. Am I nothing but a character in a “cosmic dream”? What am I then? Where am I? Am I anyone at all?
Good question, keep asking it.
17. Is it good to suffer? How so? And why do I suffer? I always try to do the right thing! And what exactly am I supposed to learn from suffering? Am I “undergoing purification” or “screwing up” or just hurting for no particular reason? Are the apparently happy people actually enlightened saints? Successful fulfillers of our common human desires? Lucky bastards? Mindless idiots?
Have a thought that isn’t a question.
18. Was Christ really God? Did He come back from the dead?
Yes. Yes. Does it matter? He did leave a teaching. Which is more than my Gran left me (if you discount happy memories and fondness).
19. Are there statements that are really true, absolutely indisputably eternally true, or is everything just relative? How can I know the Truth? And then what should I do?
Silence if you can say it
20. Do I have to be conservative if I’m religious? Can I be a “universalist”? Do I have to be faithful to only one religion? Can I be all three, or any two, at the same time?
The soul needs a support. It will wander willy-nilly, but it needs a support commensurate to the job. A religion does that especially when the soul no longer supports itself. It’s a tough call nowadays…so I would say Beauty, Truth and Virtue..the soul knows what it needs because it is a reflection, hence illusion of reality. Be true to yourself. Your soul will know.
Unfortunately, despite the obviousness of the summit, it is important to choose a path, and it is better to choose just one.
If you can’t, don’t take your eyes of the summit, but stay where you are. The teacher will come to you.
In continuation of question 20…
I’ve thought some more since I responded to those first 20 questions, and I wanted to add something. In Sufism, the way to illumination, according to Laleh Bakhtiar in her book ‘Sufism – Expressions of the Mystic Quest’ is often “described as consisting of three attainments: The Knowledge of Certainty, The Eye of Certainty and the Truth of Certainty. The distinction may be understood by taking fire as the symbol of truth. To attain the knowledge of Certainty is to know fire after having heard it described. To attain the Eye of Certainty is to know fire from seeing the light of its flames. The highest attainment the Truth of Certainty, belongs to those who know fire from having been consumed in it.”
When I re-read my post I felt a debt of gratitude to writers like Frithjof Schuon and S.H Nasr, because I would not have had a clue about Truth if I hadn’t been pointed the way in their books, and I certainly would not have seen the light of its flames. I don’t think what I wrote is good or even accurate but I’m a little astonished that in this day and age I wrote anything at all.
This is an after thought to question 4.
4.Is epidemic depression and bipolar misery caused by chemical imbalance or by residence in some kind of baffling hell?
I recentley have had a major change in my life situation and one of the things to crop up was that I am bi-polar. It is not misery and it is not hell. It makes life more challenging because sometimes it is so hard to get going, and at others you can’t stop moving. To give you an idea, last weekend I spent my entire months salary in one night, it was because I was manic, it never entered my head once that I might need this money for the rest of the month. Not once. But when I woke up two days later the depressive side would not stop reminding me. Yet with experience you learn to give things time, I say silly things like the universe told me to do it or it is a sign from the whole chaotic mix of things…but the truth is that ill or not I was aware the entire time, as I am now. So in answer to this question I would say it is the same for everyone. You just have to remember, chin up and walk tall…pretend you know what you are doing and be confident in it. No one knows, that is why we keep on asking, as if someone is going to stand up and say,”Hi, yeah I know what is going on”. I like the Quaranic verse, I don’t remember it outright but the Lord says, “I was a hidden treasure and I wished to know myself so I created the universe”. How wonderful is that, It is like saying , “Know thyself”. So no, depression, bi-polar or whatever is just as it is, some people suffer with it, some people fight it, and others just get on with it. I, just keep playing hide and seek, look and find and pretend I have any idea what is going on. I suppose what I am saying is tonight I’ve watched some good TV, I’ve had a few too many Bourbon and Cokes, I’ve eaten a lovely pizza and yet I’m still bi-polar and I am good with that…..there is nothing hellish, diabolical or anything sinister with it…that reminds me I must water the plants. Life goes on….I personally think there is nothing but God, so it doesn’t really bother me, yet I have a friend who is a classic alien abductee, he’s in his late 50′s and has no idea. He says, without reading stuff what you hear on every website. I tried to tell him to consider the metaphysical aspect but all I got because his memories were so clear and vivd was this was the course he is taking. I mean I have had experience with these things but if I was in the business he would be Gold dust. You see for a lot of people things have to be real. Verifiable. This is such a new phenomena it should be enblazoned accross the Royal Society’s coat of arms. Now I am mainic at the moment and a little drunk but does what I say seem like baffling hell or misery…I don’t think so. That said I told my boss straight up what was going on, it turns out that if you give people an inch they will GIVE a yard. best thoughts and sorry for the rant.
actually on the ufo thing I could really do with some advice….my friend is in trouble…he likens it to a discovery of truth yet all I see is,”who’s that tip-tapping over my footbridge”
Charles your help is required here.
sometimes, asking another a question helps you to answer it yourself, and no reply is always a reply!
1. Is this a Creation or just some kind of place?
Creation is the depths and origins of place.
2. Was or is there a Creator? Or a Big Bang? Or, in some way or other, has everything always been here?
Creation is always going on, it is what underlies and sustains the physical processes of coming to be and passing away. When we are creative we link in with this and come to understand it better.
3. Are things getting better or are they getting worse? Both? Can’t tell without seeing the future!
We’re just in a time of change. We need prophetic wisdom – and prophets, according to Aquinas, are not people who see the future, but who see the depths of the present.
4. Is epidemic depression and bipolar misery caused by chemical imbalance or by residence in some kind of baffling hell?
I suspect it’s always been there. But we are at a shift in history – like the end of the Roman Empire or the Renaissance – and at times of shift things hidden are revealed – “shouted from the rooftops”, to use the words of Jesus. This isn’t a bad thing – it’s an opportunity for healing.
6 & 7. How can I ever hope to cope with the colossal aggravating Problem of Good and Evil?
Is virtue rewarded and vice punished? How can we identify virtue and vice? Do bad people get away with it – as it often seems – and good innocent people get screwed – as it seems even more often?
To ask those questions is to be invited to journey. When Sergii Bulgakov’ s young son died, and he was at his funeral in the beautiful liturgy of the Russian Orthodox Church,, Bulgakov received a deep sense that his son lived and would rise again. Soon after he became a priest.
8. If there is a God, does He or She really care about us? Even know about us? It really doesn’t seem that way! An “Infinite Benevolence”? Convince me.
Try some movement/dance (yes you can, and you don’t need to know steps) – it will heighten your sensitivity to what is. Then pray.
Thanks for these great questions. Will come back soon and try answering some more.
The maths boggles my mind…80 questions…yet so far no answer has been the same…wonderful…no wonder they say no 2 snowflakes are alike.
And as for q80. I refer you to the conference of the birds….
…sometimes a good answer is better than the right one.
If I could teach one thing, it would be to always give. Give and give and give. Nothing hippy about it but it keeps you so busy :-)
…and give from where you are! Even if it is a lie, if it is given in the right spirit it will become truth quicker than you can imagine. And if it isn’t and you have the sense of responsibility of your actions you will make it a reality.
14.Archfiend? Adversary? The Devil? Antichrist? Old Nick? What am I supposed to make of that kind of talk? Is the Devil my ego? The ego of society? Or is he “really out there”? Am I supposed to fight him? If so, how?
I believe the devil is out there AND within us, working usually at the level of our unconscious. In owning our unconscious we can allow our shadow side to become enlightened and integrated. For me this happens through Christ, who is the Divine All-Light, and as man is the exemplar of the perfectly integrated human being. The very real existence of black magic and a few cases of possession suggest to me that the devil is a real external force.
15.Is it good or bad to be passionate? I hear conflicting opinions.
It’s great to be passionate. Let the passion be integrated with our reasoning/wisdom and passion will help us put that wisdom into action. Like a focussed flame. Unintegrated passion is as spectacular and potentially destructive as a bushfire.
16.Am I nothing but a character in a “cosmic dream”? What am I then? Where am I? Am I anyone at all?
Hey come on. You’re yourself AND you’re part of the cosmos. Let the light shine in the darkness of your confusion, and you’re getting empowered to be an agent for cosmic good.
17.Is it good to suffer? How so? And why do I suffer? I always try to do the right thing! And what exactly am I supposed to learn from suffering? Am I “undergoing purification” or “screwing up” or just hurting for no particular reason? Are the apparently happy people actually enlightened saints? Successful fulfillers of our common human desires? Lucky bastards? Mindless idiots?
I don’t know any truly happy people who don’t have some suffering in their lives. I really recommend Miriam Greenspan’s book “Healing Through the Dark Emotions: the Wisdom of Grief, Fear and Despair” (Shambhala, 2003).