Compatibility

If social popularity is truly reflected through the media.
If capitalism holds it's weight as a measure of the needs and desires of the populous.
You might agree that there are more than a few people out there looking for
their soul mate...
Mate, significant other, or better half, as loosely defined within the concept:
An avenue of individual enrichment attainable through the connection of oneness experienced through such a relationship..

Personally,.... heart ache, heart attack, trophy, compromise, triumph, sugar daddy, sugar mama, and lip of insanity are descriptions that also come to mind.
However, I won't be addressing those at this time..
I am not feeling particularly cynical today, and besides, I really did want this blog to indicate something of a thought containing at least semblance of social value..

As it is fitting that the title of any piece of writing be included in the actual body of the material, I suppose this as good time as any to mention it..
Compatibility
It's even a long enough word to tie it's self at both ends somewhere below the tight wire of human relationships to truly be conceived as a safety net.
"You are like me...I am like you....We gonna' get along fine."

The problem is,...people want 'time' to stop..
Just at the moment they decide to pick their apple of compatibility..
They think, "I am picking my apple at the perfect ripeness of compatibility, and it's going to somehow stay preserved just like this for my future enjoyment."

It's a dilemma.. How can we honestly expect to merge into our future, with all it's inherent changes that most certainly will take place, while expecting ourselves and our apple to remain preserved, unchanged, from that time in the passed?
Or we think,..."even due certain unavoidable changes in myself and the self of my apple, I checked this out real good, and picked my apple at just the perfect ripeness.
In spite of life's little twists and turns there is enough compatibility in the perfect ripeness of my apple to cover those unavoidable changes"...

Honestly... I think there is too much emphasis placed on the shoulders of compatibility.
I think there is too little significance placed on the value of oneness that drove you to start looking for an apple in the first place.

Everybody is already compatible...
What?...What did he just say?
Everybody is already compatible.
Ok, I admit it's time to draw a line in the sand...
Those of you who believe this is not your first time around in life...Keep on reading..
Those of you who believe this is it and your either going home to your God Head, or your going to be existing in a place separated from your God Head...
....Humm...It's your call.

So,... the universe is like a blender..
You end a lifetime and your essence is mixed back into the blender only to be spit back out here again..
Fun and games...
I am leaving the spiritual evolutionary process out of the loop cuz the fact remains.
We are still here...We haven't made it to 'over there', cuz we're still here right?
However I digress..
Mean while back at the blender...
Time after time our essence is being mixed up with all the other essences...
After a few eons of living lifetime after lifetime we are so mixed up, we are the essences we're being mixed back into..
The reality of compatibility isn't, "You are like me", "I am like you"....
The reality is, "You are me", "I am you"...

The reason oneness gravitates to harmony in human relationships is
simply because oneness is the reality of all things that get processed
through the blender..
We are all not only a part of the oneness...
We are the oneness.
Relationships fail because we are stuck in the tangled hierarchy of the dream
state known as waking conscience...
In this state of awareness we fully and absolutely believe in the concept of the separation of self.
Ooops...There goes the oneness..
It is this very state of awareness that human beings spend the better part of their busy lives building self...
Self worth, self esteem, self determination, self, self ,self..
With every illusionary act of building the concept of individual self, comes the ever widening gap of separation from the true harmonic value of oneness...
It is the separation from oneness that leads to the creation and cultivation of alienation..
It is in fact, the root cause of all human suffering in the world today.
What?...What?...What is the cause of all human suffering in the world today?
The root cause of all human suffering in the world today is Man's misunderstanding of his true nature in the universe..

The good news is Human kind has the ability to 'know' it's true nature in the universe..
Despite what fundamentalist western religious doctrine claims.
Human's have the capacity to understand their true nature in the universe because...........
Because, like everything else that exist....We are the universe...We are not only put through the blender...
We are the blender...
We are not only trying to get to that 'other place'...
We are that other place.
The oneness concept of the universe is contained in the word 'that'....
I am that...You are that....All this is that....That is all there is..

Next time I write about this subject I will share an exercise with you..
It is a piece of that capacity to 'know'..
It will allow you to experience for yourself a state of awareness one level above the 'waking state' of conscience...
It is this state of awareness Walt Whitman refers to in his quote:
I cannot be awake for nothing looks to me as it did before,
Or else I am awake for the first time, and all before has
been a mean sleep.

The Role of Religion in the New World

It's not my fault..I was instigated...
The Pope's lesson on the necessity to allow God to
make determination of the end of life drove me to it..
"People must accept death at the hour chosen by God"...
Pope Benedict XV1....
I love this Pope...He is a truly compassionate being...
He reminds me of Pope Paul the sixth..Another compassionate being...
Apparently some European countries decision to integrate a more human element of control concerning the issue of euthanasia fueled the Roman Catholic Church's decision to speak currently on the issue...
Per the Associated Press's article I read on yahoo...Belgium and The Netherlands have legalized euthanasia, and France is in the midst of renewed debate on the issue..
The teaching of the Church concerning this subject has not changed...It is based on the same sanctity of life, moral view that encompasses the Church's 'right to life' stand on abortion..
Abortion, euthanasia, are social issues today due to seedlings of thought beginning with the cultural revolution of the 1960's and 70's...
I believe those seeds have been cultivated by way of technological advances in natural sciences starting in the 1980's and still gathering momentum as we speak...
Mankind's horizon's are no longer manageable by the great Religious Institutions.
Faith, as a viable means of spiritual growth finds it's self shouting when a whisper would suffice not more than thirty years ago..
As gains in scientific discipline advent the once socially accepted norm 'we do not have the capacity to know'...begins to crumble and no body can find a legitimate reason to remodel.....
Mankind wants to 'know'...Mankind has always wanted to know...It is the nature of our beings..
Faith has held the high cards because Mankind has not had sufficient tools in the past to present viable challenge to the 'we do not have the capacity to know' ideal...
Questioning is a faith based religion's greatest concern ..
Let me just make the point, this concern is truly not based out of fear, as is the popular view of those who adhere to the concepts of atheism...
Instead I believe the greater concern is actually based in compassion...
The great religious Institutions want to preserve the ideals of Moralism...
As faith becomes a more questionable means of life value, pressure is placed on the shoulders of religion in regard to how society views their total value...
I was raised a Roman Catholic and my introduction to that faith left with me a great respect for Jesus Christ and his gifts to the world..
Christ was a realist and presented his message to a pre-scientific world...
Christ was also a revolutionary teacher in that he did question the status quo..
I believe in the spirit of Christ and I believe that spirit is here with us today...
I don't believe he is one to be found crouching in the shadows of fear...It is not his style..
As Mankind breaks away from faith he must do so cautiously...Man kind survived the ice ages due to his ability to remember the value of 'what got me this far'...Man's duelist role of both predator and prey instinctively ingrained a common sense of caution..
This is a good thing..
The fact is Religious institutions still have a great value to offer 'modern man'...Religious Institution have always taken the great and honorable responsibility of leaders and preservers of Morality...
It is this great and solemn responsibility that dictates these institutions move slowly...It is a prerequisite...Man is ADHD...Religion realizes this...Moral code is like a natural resource...Once given up it can not be restored...
Religious Institution realizes it's own mistakes over the years..It's own failure at it's own Moral code...Again, we are all only human...
I agree with the need for checks and balances working in our lives today...
On one hand, I am thrilled at the advances Man is making in the areas of technologies and science..
We are on the brink of something amazing in regards to man's ability to understand...
It is the self inherent responsibility of those who have chosen to carry the torch of Morality, to insure we venture into that new world together...

Thou Shall Not Kill

There are no creatures alive on this planet that don't survive at the expense of others..
It would be a mistake to propose literal adaption the age old moral pillar Thou Shall Not Kill.
To do so and exist would be impossible...
Even at our most innocent state of conscience our bodies are at work killing to protect us..
Without white blood cells killing invading microbes we would surely die..
With that established it qualifies the concept of 'justified killing'...
In an effort to understand the moral division line of justified or non justified killing, I once again find myself seeking to step through yet another door of perception..
As I am a relative child in experience and skilled process concerning the area of life loosely defined as contemplative..
It has been some time since the text above was written and this text added..
I have however chosen what I believe to be an adequate door of perception for our journey..
INTENT....
As established earlier killing must be allowed, it must be justified within the realm we live..
Without that license, I for one could not bear to view the despair of life as we know it..
There would be no hope for us as spiritual beings..
I do not believe in my heart, that it is the nature of the universe to exist such a realm by which spiritual growth is unattainable..
Man's typical hierarchy of life puts Human's at the top of the list then 'animals' and 'apples' somewhere down below..
This conception is a result of Man's self-centered ness...
It is a notion that has always bothered me and taken many moons of reflection to sort out...
Self-centered ness in and of itself is inherent in all life forms as we currently know them..
It is a necessary developed instinct common to all in a world based upon survival of the fittest..
However Human kind have taken up the flagship of 'self' to the extent of inflicting such conflict and violence
not seen by any other life form..
Couple this 'ego' with a creative intellect and all other life learns quickly to run for cover..
So have I surmised that the degree of self-centered ness practiced in the act of killing will greatly effect
the INTENT of the killing..
It is the value contained in the INTENT of the act that determines the degree of justification or unjustifiable the act it self..
When I was a child of eight years, my Parents bought me a pellet gun as a gift..
My Father was an avid fishermen and hunter..
I am sure he meant it as my introduction into a form of recreation he so enjoyed..
As was my first fishing pole and reel...
Both my Parents held a reverence for nature and that value was instilled in me..
The golden rule: What ever was killed was to be eaten for food..
I would accompany my Father on fishing and hunting trips although I was too young to hunt, and
too distracted by my surroundings to be a patient fisherman.
I did however experience the excitement of the catch..
Initially I was allowed to target practice with my pellet gun in the back yard..
One day however, my Father and I went on an excursion in the woods near our home.
I brought the pellet gun along..The memory of the excitement of the catch was my
determination for bringing the gun with me that day..
A group of small blackbirds were feeding on the forest floor and I decided I should try to
shoot one of these birds..I did so from a distance and succeeded in only wounding a bird, not killing it
right out...
I approached the fluttering bird as it struggled between life and death..It was in obvious great pain, great fear,
helpless and innocent...
The excitement of the kill only a moment ago was now completely alien to me..
My heart burst for what I had done, for no good reason, to another life...
I stood over the dying bird with the pellet gun still in my hands...A great overwhelming sadness enveloped me
and with no other thought than to end it's suffering,
I emptied the remaining pellets into the bird until I was certain it was dead.
I have continued to fish from time to time over the years..My Father, a knowledgeable man, advised me
the nervous system of fish is primitive in the evolutionary scheme of things..Fish don't feel much pain
as I perceive it to be...
Much to my Father's disappointment however, I never picked up a gun again..
The first INTENT in the example is one of self-centered ness..
Clearly disrespect coupled with self-centered ness the motivation of intent per the shooting..
The actual act of killing however was with the intent of compassion..
Self-centered quilt no doubt played a role.
This event took place fourty-eight years ago and has resurfaced in my memory from time to time
through out my life...
To this day,I clearly recall the emotions...
I have found that often what becomes apparent stumbling down these little roads of perception
are answers as if depicted in one way road sign warnings..
The answer to 'self-centered ness'...is 'compassion'...
The justification in killing becomes...'with reverence'...