In a Nutshell

Putting reality in a nutshell is probably a bad idea.

That's this one in a nutshell.

Life is complex.  The more important the questions, the more complex the answers.  Simple truths don't work in reality, at least, inasmuch as they work, they're not as simple as they seem.

The most complex question a person has to answer is this one:  What should I do with my soul?

Lots of people like to ignore this problem either by denying they have a soul or denying that it's their problem - theirs to do with what they want.

Both kinds of denial are not legitimate excuses for failing to take responsibility for oneself.  Pretending that you didn't hit your sister doesn't mean you didn't hit your sister.

Religion, in many ways, is an attempt to answer this question with a rational answer:

I should do with my soul the best possible thing that could be done with my soul.

What is that?

God only knows.

And that's literally true, God only knows.

How do you get God to tell you?

And there it gets complicated.

A friend of mine told me I should chant "I am ramakrishna" a few times.  But I couldn't.  I'm not ramakrishna.

So I read his book which is very nice.

Have I learned anything?  Yes.

I've learned that no matter how much I know, there's still more that I don't know.  I wouldn't have it any other way frankly.

Recognizing unity in all people - and the unity of the goal of human self-realization if you like that term - is trivial.

Nobody wants hell, everybody wants heaven - even if sometimes we have them confused.

Nobody wants to act on faith, everybody wants knowledge.  But I know from my own experience.  Knowing something for a fact doesn't make you act on it.  Take smoking, for instance.

So there are real differences between people.  The declaration is fudging on the words "created equal".  Equal in what?  Equal in that we all are open to ourselves as possibilities.  Certainly not in that either.

Jesus prayed for us though "I pray that they will be one as we are one" - the cryptic "oneness in the spirit, oneness in the Lord".  

Hindi's say "J'ai baghvan ji" - I am that which thou art.  "Thou" because you are holy and I acknowledge it. 

To be a descendent of God is truly miraculous.  How else can we quantify our existence?

If God is Matter, then we are Matter's children.  If God is the great spirit and creator of the Universe, then we are God's children.  If the Universe is inanimate, then we are its spirit, and we are thus the God we seek and we are one in our seeking for it.  If God has infused His World with His Spirit as the bible says, then we are his spirit here.

When God Breathed His Spirit into Adam, did this make Adam different from the other people there at the time?  YOU BET YOUR SWEET PATOOTY.  (In chapter 1 He made them male and female.  In Chapter 2 he made Adam and shortly thereafter made Eve.  Attention to details is critical when dealing with God.)

Dealing.  The Gates of heaven will not be stormed.  No amount of ratiocination will get us there.  No amount of pleading really.  Only this - the mercy of God.

Why will God show us mercy?

God put us here to take care of His Garden.  Well, we certainly messed that one up.

He said "Love One Another as I have Loved you."  Well, we certainly are messing that one up.

Instead we poison our world and kill our friends.

What can we do?  How do we set ourselves right again?

The metaphor I like is this - "balance a large ball perfectly still on your nose."

Perhaps someone with great skill can stop the ball from moving relative to them.  Such a person has great balance.  But no one I know can stop the ball from moving at all.  

So it is with us. We are balancing our small lives on a gigantic society the extent of which we can't possible begin to know.  We can do our best.  Is our best good enough?

Do people still get killed unjustly using the money you pay in taxes?  Do you pay your taxes out of fear of what the government would do to you if you didn't?  Then satisfying your fear is more important than preventing your government from killing people unjustly.

Yes, it's true, the government uses a form of extortion to extract that money from people of conscience.  But this doesn't excuse us.

Oh Lord, I say, Please forgive me for being a coward.

Why should Lord forgive me?

Was Christ a coward?  Why should I be allowed to be a coward and not He?

Ramakrishna says that we can not do good for others until God has given us the power.  That's roughly right, God would have to make it possible for us to start being Good.  When will God awaken and help those of us who do cry for truth, mercy and justice? 

Soon enough but not soon enough.

It strikes me that God has made the immovable object and the unstoppable force and is simply keeping them from colliding.  Even if they did, though, faith says, God will figure something out.

Well, that's all folks.