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I had a triple heart by-pass three years ago, it changed my life.
I can now walk up to ten miles a day, everyday, & I feel great.
ptsum & songinthewind7 I know what you are going through & my thoughts & best wishes are with you, I know you will both make a full recovery, good luck to you.
I have lit the fire in the center and hope everyone here will join me in a prayer of healing for Ptsum and Songinthewiind7. Bring your flutes and drums.
Happy Birthday, Nick.
for 60+ years I've considered myself Christian. for the last 30 or so I have "done my own thing" developing a relationship with the creator that is far more intimate and wonderful than any I had ever experienced sitting in a pew or standing in a pulpit. In reading the bible with an eye to the potential motivations of many of the letters found there, I realized that that book was deliberately assembled in contradiction with what Jesus taught. Jesus taught freedom, the bible teaches adherence to ritual. Jesus taught love while much of the bible teaches retribution and horrendous punishment. Jesus taught personal relationships with God while the bible teaches hierarchies.
I was giving some thought today as I was driving around that much of what Jesus actually taught can be found in the many non-affiliated religions of personal responsibility. Personal responsibility is something Jesus taught, but is rarely found in the liturgy of today's Christian community.
I realized there are two common elements in most of the good religions of the world. they permeate the Pagan groups. they do not exist in the Judaic religions of today's Islam and today's Christianity.....yet they are the two prime messages of Jesus.
The first is the connectedness of everything. every atom of the universe is connected to every other atom. When I ignore a hungry child, or a homeless drunk, I am damaging myself as well as them. It is not my belief that I should protect them from death, but while they are in this existence, they are connected to me and I should be compassionate. the old testament talks about the rocks crying out. Chief Seattle talks about the waters singing. these can be heard and understood because they are part of us. they are connected to the creator like we are. What we do to the world, we do to ourselves.......and this is sobering.
The other thing that connects us all, is that all is blessed. Everything has blessedness as part of their makeup....even the rocks and trees. This is where so many of the rigid religious communities fail......they point fingers at those who are different and "condemn" them to hell. Whether it is being gay, it is being tall, it is being fat, it is being poor, it is being the wrong color, it is being the wrong religion, it is being the wrong ______(fill in the blank). although we disagree with many different things, we are here sharing the world and sharing the creation..........and we should be celebrating that blessedness and connectedness.....not causing stife because one persons way is not the way of the others around them.
Yet all were endowed by the creator with certain inalienable rights..........all were born blessed, and all are born connected to the creator and through the creator to all of creation.....this we should celebrate and sing about........we truly are brothers and sisters and we truly are our brothers and sisters keeper.
Such a beautiful post GP..I too have left the "have to's " of religion.
I have reconnected to the God I knew when I was a child..
The one who is all loving all kind, all compassionate..
The one who created everything in the earth and blessed it and said "It is good".Then with love gave it to us to tend to, take from, and to replenish for the next generatiion..
The one I turned to for comfort when none could be found anywhere else, and the one I turned to who knew my heart better than anyone else..
After many years I have given all my religious "wisdom" up and rediscovered that "faith of a child" has brought me great peace..
What Brother Goodpaster has to say makes good sense about the connectedness of everything, it has long been the belief of the native people that we are all connected in one form or another, that's why some of our greatest leaders of the Native American world have said great words that are connected to us all, words like." Being Indian is an attitude, a state of mind, a way of being in harmony with all things and all beings. It is allowing the heart to be the distributor of energy on this planet; to allow feelings and sensitivities to determine where energy goes; bringing aliveness up from the Earth and from the Sky, putting it in and giving it out from the heart."-Broken Medicine Eagle. "The American Indian is of the soil, whether it be the region of forests, planes, pueblos,our mesas. He fits into the landscape, for the hand that fashioned the continent also fashioned the man for his surroundings. He once grew as naturally as the wild sunflowers, he belongs just as the Buffalo belonged"- Luther Standing Bear.
It is my opinion and mind you it is only my opinion, that a great teacher many centuries ago went among his people to teach them hope and love for one another, to teach them that their Creator cared for them and would provide for them in the next world. It was the teaching of love and respect for one another, a nonviolent way of living your life and that some of his students maybe misunderstood his teachings and after his departure from this world, those same students decided to put into words his teachings as they understood them to be and that over time, through misunderstanding or misinterpretations, the true meaning of his words have changed. It is said that; religion is a man-made culture based on doctrines that guides it's people in the practice of spirituality. Religion is a good thing that in some cases has had bad consequences on some individuals spirituality. Not because religion is bad, but because it was applied in a bad way. Because religion is man-made and culture based, it naturally has some of the rules and taboos of that particular culture built into it. Unfortunately for some, many cultures have chosen to use the fear of God to enforce the man-made rules of that culture.
I believe that in some cases this is what has happened to Christianity and some other organized religions. There is nothing wrong with having a religion it's good to have a belief of some kind or other, it's how the belief is applied is what matters.
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