EXPLORING OTHER METAPHYSICAL FORMS

I was looking forward to today's class today where I arrived just after three. The DVD was already rolling on the subject of Buddhism. I had been looking forward to leaving "western" religions behind and getting back into expanding my mind. Certain observations become apparent. It says in the Bible that Jesus had all the trappings of royalty and gave it up to become a servant. However even apologists will say that Jesus did not do this but stayed with his oh so well adjusted textbook family upbringing. Buddah left the pampared life in a pallace, and his wife and new son, and went about searching out the realities of the rest of the world where he came upon pain and suffering. Buddah chose to become an acetic and denied the flesh and concluded that we are born in this life to suffer. However the Federation word "suffer", which they use, refers not to physical discomfort but rather to "put up with" or "allow". As such suffering is not some clensing virtue but is rather morally neutral in and of itself. But of course the Buddah discovered the "middle path". In the film they announced not the eight fold path you've heard so much about but rather five percepts. The first is that you should not kill anything, man or beast. The Buddah took exception to the ritual and sacrificial system of the Hindus and declared that ritual in and of itself cannot cleans the soul or bring enlightenment. Another tennant is that you should not inject mind altering substances. Also you should not engage in illicit sex and that you should not steal and you should not spread untruths about your brother. Christians are not so hot on this last one. The Buddahist is not prevented from practicing other religious ritual while at the same time practicing Buddhism.

In the film there was much talk of higher plains of heavenly existance. It is said that in some extreme planes of pleasure you may experiance so much pleasure in a hundred thousand years that feels as though it were but a day, and it all comes to an end as this "reverse pergitory" finally levels all your good karma, and you are knocking at the door waiting to be reincarnated again. It's a bit skin to Commander Reyker when he goes to bed and is ready to doze off for seemingly well deserved rest when a knock comes at the door informing him that it was seven AM and time to get up. I can't help but think of Pete Richards' doctrine of "the blessings of consumption" where you feast on the grace of God and put back nothing in the pot. A similer analogy might be a drug addict (and religion is the opiate of the people) who passed out in bliss and dies and X number of years later after this present Universe has vanished and a new one is formed, behold he's the same self obsessed jerk he used to be. There was much talk of being above personal emotions either for good or for bad and even things like love had their limits. It was rather better to rise above yourself and see everything objectively, which is exactly what the Federation teaches. Another term brought up was mahayana Bhuddaism where the whole world enters Nirvana at once and it would be selfish for a sole individual to enter Nirvana with no thought to his bretherin. And so the doctrine of the bodesapha, or one who forgoes his own karms. Mal Evans used to teach that the Steely Dan song "Bodesapha" was about Dennis Wilson. Also in the film was Tebettan Bhuddism where they talk a lot about Death and obtaining safe passage to the next life. To me this seems the most appealing form of Bhuddism. The Dali Lama, if you didn't know is selected as a small boy by an elder who has things of the prior Dali Lama and the young boy who correctly picks out the things that the old Dali Lama used in his prior life, will be the next Dali Lama. There was talk about Zen and how self awareness can involve all the mind games that Zen uses. There was a lot of discussions of various war lords and battles in Japan taking place during the middle ages.

Finally there was the notion that time itself is circular. There is never any beginning or ending to things but that things are always shifting and emerging leading to eventual dissolution and reformation. It is said that the personality, the DNA blueprint we westerners charish so highly, is something that will be disolved in the course of time. One should not hold too tightly on to things even if it's your own personality. If you live around here you know personalities can be altered depending on which drugs they are taking. When you are dreaming, often your values are different and what is important to you in that dream state is different from when you are awake. If the life force dispurses the body and travels the Universe seeking alternate forms, then truely what we value is an accidental collision of particular egg and sperm at conception. The Federation teaching that the notion of a "Divinely created purpose for one individual unique to his abilities- - is a highly egotistical one. As to the notion of time traveling in circles, you know that Stewart Sutcliffe teaches the porcupine quill analogy where time emerges as a series of needles or spikes from a central point in all directions. We have talked about this many times in prior postings. Sometimes it's a good idea to be exposed to multiple ideas. As I have often said, many ideas I have espoused in blogs are postulations. They are propositions that theoretical constructs based on a set of assumptions about reality. Since there is so little we know in the way of hard evidence about the after life, such theorizing is not wrong to do. Suppose rather the universe is seen as a gigantic bar magnet where the iron particles form that grid flux from the north and south magnetic poles. In this analogy there would I suppose be theoretical electrons flowing in a coiled wire around a steel bar. In this construction time would lead from the central point to a future of which there would be an ultimate extreme before time doubled back on itself. In this construction there would be some fifth dimensional divergence or sideways time, but less of it than in Stewart's construction. Time would begin flowing the other way to an "ultimate" past where one would thence catch up to the present moment again. Unlike the Federation model, which is considered dogmatic truth, this time would bend. But similar to the Federation model, the time lines would never cross each other. I don't know where the Easteners got their idea of circular time but the Ptolomists of Egypt and the Mayans also believed strongly in cosmic cycles so in the natural model of the Universe, such inductive reasoning makes half way sense.

The film did not weigh in on the topic of determinism, which the Federation and Calvinists teach. However there was much talk of free will. Karma basically is the will acted upon, and nobody can deny that all animistic life posseses karma. The Bhuddists like the Hindus do believe that bad karma results in a bad next life whereas good karma results in a better next life. Rats have karma. Smart rats act smarter because of their environment, but they are no freer in the metaphysical sense of things than the slower rats. All are equally unfree. Some such as Jesus of KFI would say "Just because God knows everything that will ever happen does not limit man's freedom". To him I would like to say "Suppose I am praying a marathon prayer over an important decision I am to make in my life". Now further suppose that the decision will ultimately turn out to be a woefully incorrect one, based on knowledge that I never posessed ahead of time". To some it may be said of me "Even though you wern't volitionally at fault you still comitted an error because you didn't have the mind of God in your action, and any action short of the mind of God is sin". Now before I make my decision, what is in the mind of God when he thinks of me. Jesus would have you believe he looks over at Marcus and sees a man with a free choice to make. But we know otherwise. God rather looks over at Marcus and knows he will be sought earnestly, but God knows also he will deny me the wisdom I so crave and allow the error to occur". How can it be said "You are free to make a choice" when the wisdom TO make that choice is denied me? This is just another of religion's hypocracies. Some people believe piety is doing good deeds all day long and getting brownie points. Christians on the other hand such as Calvary Costa Mesa count virtue not by the deed done, but by how many acts of grace you have received. Either way a Buddahist would say both are wrong. You don't do good deeds to get some cosmic feel good buzz. You are to become Enlightened and as an individual objective and without error, as Scientology suggests, you act naturally out of your own inate good. It's this inate goodness on mankind that Conservatives will deny, but in the end this denial of the basic goodness in mankind will be their downfall and undoing.