Chakraman:
but to live without authority is scarey isn't, to be alone and responsible for oneslf, its preferable to have a book or a priest shepherd us, much safer, but therein lies the problem as it makes a dependant child out of us.
I believe that God communicates to all of us, and I believe we don't need books or human teachers, for God's spirit within us which lead us into all truth, and show us our sin, and the path to change. Truth should be our authority, and the authority we allow to mold us into what Truth wants us to be.
you can only love when the self dies, completely, this is obvious is it not?
You see, I guess here is where I see Jesus as again showing the perfect way to egolessness. He said, ''just get busy showing love to others and to God''. It is our complete dedication to showing love in words, deed and action that we forget ourselves. Of course we need to continuly judge our motivation to make sure that what we are doing is out of sincere love, but Jesus says, ''follow me, you'll make mistakes, but you'll make progress too''. Jesus talked about the need to die, so that we can be live, but all of his teaching was in context of getting started NOW, not waiting, sitting, and deliberating the death of our self.
i personally believe that jesus probably existed and that he was a pretty cool dude, more than likely completely egoless etc. when i hear things like "let he who is without sin cast the first stone", i can feel that coming from the mouth of an enlightened being who speaks from the "perrenial wisdom" in the "style" , if it can be called that, of "la vie negative" or the great negation, i.e. he is not telling you "what to do" (which would be a positive assertion) but merely revealing the obvious, that all men are sinners and allowing the stoners to experience the hypocrisy of their actions for themself, without telling them what to do. do you see the beautiful difference? no dependance on another, no man from outside can make you free. so when i see a passage that contains a positive assertion, "do this, do that" i know its not from the mouth of an enlightened and hence added by some little person trying to compel people to be good in the context of a religious text that does contain some true words, which make folk believe every syllable.
Jesus did at times tell people what to do:
''do not call anyone on earth father, for you have one father in heaven''.
''be not called Rabbi, or Master''
''if someone hits you on the cheek, offer him the other''
''don't store up riches on earth where moth and rust corrupt''
''if your brother sins against you, rebuke him''
''If your brother repents forgive him''
''when you pray do so secretly''
''when you give do so secretly''
''when you fast do so secretly''
''do not worry where your food and clothes will come from''
''seek first the Kingdom of God''
to name a few. If Jesus was completely egoless, then wouldn't it make sense to do what he taught? He said ''if you want to see if what I say comes from God, just do it''. But how many people are willing to let go of all their ego and walk in faith? (not many, I can tell you).
the ego lies under many stones, to assume one has lost ego through seeking the will of god could be an egotistical assertion.
It could be, or it could not. You'll never know until you start trying to seek the will of God with all your heart.
i can feel your ego in your words, it jumps out at me
Perhaps you can give me a few quotes?
To be honest, 'ego schmeego', I don't look at peoples post as look for ego, I just read what people say, and see if it's rational, irrational, honest, dishonest, if it leads to actual postive change in response to things like love, truth, and overcoming selfishness/greed etc. All those things MAY be ego, it's semantics to me.
i am not interested in being egoless
Lol. You could have fooled me.
, i am not interested in being egoless that is a gratifying noble sounding spiritual ideal, that i question strongly that you are "gaining" through your work,
Well, I question strongly that this is what you want to see/hear, because otherwise your ego may have to die. You can't find fault in my work, so you find fault in my motivation, which is something you wouldn't know about.
my interest is my conflict because that is the fact. but in honesty i can't be that serious can i? otherwise i would have uprooted it.
I don't know, I am still uprooting selfishness, greed, pride, laziness, prejudice, fear etc, from my life.
but the idea that your life being empty of love is abhorrent to you is it not? your life is centred around you being a noble soldier of god and its a paradigm shift to accept that all your actions and good deeds are phoney self centred hype.
Can you show me how ''all my actions and good deeds are phoney self-centered hype''? Again, you can't attach my work, but you try to attack my motivation. The exact thing that happened to Jesus. They couldn't fault what he did, but they did try to say he did it by the power of the devil.
To love is the most important thing of all. I have lived a life motivated by love for myself, and I don't want to live that way. It brings suffering to me and to others. Jesus made it clear, ''No greater love has man than he lay down his life for his friends, ''A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another as I have loved you''.
i'm wrong, full of self, empty of love; i must see my travesty if i am to understand, not escape into lofty notions of being spiritual because i know i'm not.
The more I follow Jesus the more I see how unspiritual I am, as he shows me time and time again. So, who's escaping into lofty notions of being spiritual?
i also feel that you're not and that we are the same bucket with a hole in it, pouring water in it to try and fill oursrelves and it just leaks out of the bottom.
Well, it looks like we agree on someting, i.e. I am not spiritual, but I am trying to be.
i don't feel no love in you at all, you may not feel any in me but then i'm not claimimng to be loving, you are.
Well, I since I have only 'met' you (if one can call conversing over a forum meeting someone), I wouldn't be able to make such a statement as ''you don't have any love in you'' (though it seems you are fine to make such a statement). I am confident you have love in you. We all do. We all have that of God in us. I think you have love in you.
Love is more than a feeling my friend. You may not 'feel' love from me (but that does not mean love is not there). Perhaps you are looking for something that isn't actually love. I don't know...you'll need to work that out for yourself.