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I think you could, but at the moment you seem to be making it more confused.
you said above: it is not accurate to say Shiva is worshiped as nature, if that is what you meant
but earlier you said:
Originally Posted by cb2008 View Post
Lord Shiva is worshipped, among other ways, as trees, as the lord of trees, that he wears the leaves of the bilva tree as his hair, the sun and crescent moon in his matted hair? Holds a deer in his hand. I believe he is nature.
Is Shiva nature or not in your view?
you may not see where this is going. If Shiva is manifest in nature then I wonder what is left for Vishnu.
If nature is not Shiva, then Shiva is exactly what, other than a sort of equivalent of a fat kid with wings and a bow and arrow to personify 'Love'. This Hindu iconography os fun, I don't deny that, but i don't think they should be taken too seriously.
Are you trying to fit this all in some frame work? Because I am not sure why our communication is so garbled.
Let’s see if this works:
Brahman is manifest in all of creation.
The trinity is Brahman, in a different form.
Shiva is worshiped in many ways, in beautiful verses, described in many ways, as the five elements, the sun and fire. He haunts the cremation grounds.
Vishnu is worshipped in other ways, verses describing him dressed in finery etc etc all describing his greatness
Then there is this: the trinity bow down to Devi, the goddess who is also a manifestation of Brahman.
God picks me up & lifts me out of the universe & the universe becomes the size of a pea. And God is with everyone.
When I first met The Tree of Eternal Life It transformed me into a Multi-Armed god on a throne in heaven, that could see in all directions at once 'through all the levels of the heavens.
That is the power of The Tree of Eternal Life alone, which gave birth to Brahma from just one of its flowers. And The Tree is In God's Garden. God takes me to Eden often to see The Tree of Eternal Life & speak to me.
Yet people trying to define God is like specs of dust trying to define the mountain. The specs of dust can argue forever about the nature of the mountain but they can't see it clearly from their limited points of view.
So it's a waste of time arguing about which God is which because they all come from the one God in the end. When you all meet God & start spending lots of time with God you will see how all religions are correct in various capacities '& they are simply limited points of view masquerading as the Grand All-Seeing point of view. So each religion is an aspect of truth about God, in other words.
To control the mind so that you can begin perceiving God you first have to learn to step back from the thinking process & ignore all the thoughts that flow through the mind. They will keep flowing into the mind for half an hour or so & then cease completely '& you will have a mind that is simply pure awareness devoid of distracting thought. Then God (who is with you already) can begin speaking to you & giving you visions, & then manifesting in person when you are ready.
If you focus on prayers or mantras or worship or deities etc etc then you are simply filling your mind with obstacles/barriers/distractions that will block the mind from being able to perceive God's Communications.
You need to ignore all thought '& all thoughts of 'things, including religions,' so that God who is above them all can get through to your perception.
It's easier if you meditate in pitch dark so that there is nothing to distract you. God will fill you with blinding light shortly
^^^
Whatever that means.....
Atheist demand a proof of God.
Can we show them this picture of a creature with 4 arms and 4 faces?
No, everyone knows God is an old white guy with a beard, wears a white robe and possibly Mormon underwear, and created Adam in his image or Michael Angelo is a liar.
BTW that's not Brahmam (the Force / Ruta / whatever Vikings called the spirit that pervades the universe). That's Brahma, the Creator in the trinity of Brahma-Vishnu-Mahesh. The way Hindu gods are depicted are for the inner eye - attributes such as four heads, multiple arms, objects held in the arms are all symbolic. Not literal.
And then people take them literally ANYWAY, and start making up stories. Just like Greeks did. So Brahma created Saraswati (goddess of knowledge) and coveted her, his own daughter. C'est la vie.
Yet people trying to define God are like specs of dust trying to define the mountain. The specs of dust can argue forever
about the nature of the mountain but they can't see it clearly from their limited points of view.
When you all meet God & start spending lots of time with God you will see how all religions are correct in various
capacities '& they are simply limited points
of view masquerading as the Grand All-Seeing point of view.
So each religion is an aspect of truth about God, in other words.
To control the mind so that you can begin perceiving God you first have to learn to step back from the thinking process
& ignore all the thoughts that flow through the mind.
They will keep flowing into the mind for half an hour or so & then cease completely '& you will have a mind that
is simply pure awareness devoid of distracting thought.
Then God (who is with you already) can begin
speaking to you &
giving you visions, &
then manifesting in person when you are ready.
If you focus on prayers or mantras or worship or deities etc etc then you are simply
filling your mind with obstacles/barriers/distractions
that will block the mind from being able to perceive God's Communications.
You need to ignore all thought '& all thoughts of 'things, including religions,'
so that God who is above them all can get through to your perception.
It's easier if you meditate in pitch dark so that there is nothing to distract you. God will fill you with blinding light shortly
Very impressive. And accurate from my experience, so if anyone starts up...they have to go through me, too.
To control the mind so that you can begin perceiving God you first have to learn to step back from the thinking process & ignore all the thoughts that flow through the mind. They will keep flowing into the mind for half an hour or so & then cease completely '& you will have a mind that is simply pure awareness devoid of distracting thought. Then God (who is with you already) can begin speaking to you & giving you visions, & then manifesting in person when you are ready.
If you focus on prayers or mantras or worship or deities etc etc then you are simply filling your mind with obstacles/barriers/distractions that will block the mind from being able to perceive God's Communications.
You need to ignore all thought '& all thoughts of 'things, including religions,' so that God who is above them all can get through to your perception.
It's easier if you meditate in pitch dark so that there is nothing to distract you. God will fill you with blinding light shortly
Your claims and descriptions of your experiences are well beyond the pale so I reject them out of hand. Sad that you seem to need to make such outrageous claims that do nothing but harm your overall credibility. However, your descriptions of how to meditate are well within the bounds of effective practice and may help those who want to try it.
Are you trying to fit this all in some frame work? Because I am not sure why our communication is so garbled.
Let’s see if this works:
Brahman is manifest in all of creation.
The trinity is Brahman, in a different form.
Shiva is worshiped in many ways, in beautiful verses, described in many ways, as the five elements, the sun and fire. He haunts the cremation grounds.
Vishnu is worshipped in other ways, verses describing him dressed in finery etc etc all describing his greatness
Then there is this: the trinity bow down to Devi, the goddess who is also a manifestation of Brahman.
The framework is what science has revealed about nature and how it works. Anything that does not fit into this comes under suspicion of being man -made myth. That's the long and short of it. Now Brahma as 'everything' will do. and Shiva as 'nature' will do, too. So what is Vishnu? A post above had a link to a comment that Vishnu is the Lord of liberated souls. That apart from prayers, devotions and Holy icons (which are art -forms and not much else) might be a start of a discussion.
I find most of this bogus. It is hard but it is best to go to the original texts, and yes they are in Sanskrit. Knowleadge takes work. You can't get it from Cliff notes written with some kind of a slant.
There is no rivalry between Shiva and Vishnu in the Puranas - the old stories.
But there are those who believe Vishnu is the real God and they look down on Shiva because he is of the dark side. Hinduism does not look at dark as evil, unlike other systems. It is just dark, like Krishna is dark, clouds are dark. There is no judgement.
Shiva is the destroyer - the meaning of which is complex. He is the destroyer of sorrow, the root cause of it, which is the accumulation of your actions, karma. It is a simplistic summary of a complex idea with many layers. This idea causes some people to fear him. He is the Guru who teaches you lessons.
Vishnu is the one who preserves Dharma - a concept that is difficult to explain, but you can say it is righteousness, balance. Justice does not quite capture it but something like that. So he appears at the end of an age when evil has risen and establishes dharma. This is what Krishna says in the Gita and he is an avatar of Vishnu and he reveals his universal self to Arjuna.
The framework is what science has revealed about nature and how it works. Anything that does not fit into this comes under suspicion of being man -made myth. That's the long and short of it. Now Brahma as 'everything' will do. and Shiva as 'nature' will do, too. So what is Vishnu? A post above had a link to a comment that Vishnu is the Lord of liberated souls. That apart from prayers, devotions and Holy icons (which are art -forms and not much else) might be a start of a discussion.
Hinduism, Vedanta, does not fit into the framework of science. So you perhaps can never quite get it.
I believe in science and I also believe in Vedanta and spirituality. I can hold both these together at the same time, it does not bother me.
I reject any kind of organized religion, religious leaders, or evangelism ..
Vishnu is the one who preserves Dharma - a concept that is difficult to explain, but you can say
it is righteousness, balance. Justice does not quite capture it but something like that..
I'll say!
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And accurate from my experience, so if anyone starts up...they have to go through me, too. 
