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I found the part in the article interesting where the monk says that we should not get excited about "good" ingredients any more than we are downtrodden about "bad" ingredients. "If you only have wild grasses with which to make a broth, do not disdain them. If you have ingredients for a creamy...

How can you be sure that the evidence of God that you think comes from God is not instead coming from your mind and your mind only? How do you know it's not just a self-fulfilling prophecy - perhaps you want to believe in God, therefore your mind fabricates God's interaction in your life...

donnann ain't got nothin' on all those Young Earther's that think the universe is 7,000 years old and refuse to acknowledge any science that says otherwise... I've been in discussions with Young Earthers that will cite a scientific theory (such as Hubble's Law) as "proof" of a creator; but...

SG - have you ever grown your own vegetable garden? The "washing the sand away from the rice" reminds me of the connection to sustenance/nature one feels when pulling up a handful of carrots from the garden and washing the dirt away. Most humans in today's world have little to no connection...

Hi Jean, welcome. Which God do you worship?

Ben - you and I are of the same mind on this topic. But I wonder, where do you get your 2 billion figure? What is the justification for that particular number? We are currently at 7 billion; that is a lot of human carnage and suffering to get down to 2 billion. I'm more of the theory that we...

they will kill the snake ancient Aztec prophecy as Cortés smelled blood

Good point HK; one can never "prove" that something does not exist. One would think that there should be some good evidence, if God wanted us to know that he exists. What evidence have you experienced? Where exactly is this "real place" located? In the observable universe? OK, I'll...

Hi DT, I look forward to learning more about your beliefs. I consider myself an agnostic pantheist; with some random influences from Buddhism, Christianity, and Native American belief systems. I try to keep an open mind towards other belief systems/religions to see if there are insights that I...

Nice post, salishan. You asked what Gyd does. What evidence is there that Gyd actively does anything? (divine intervention)

This doesn't make sense to me. If the Holy Spirit is part of God (the trinity), why would it guide us as we pray to God? Actually, I have never understood why pray to God at all? If God is omniscient, He/it would already know everything we are about to say, would He not? My thought is...

This is the problem with the closed-minded "young earthers", they start with the "answer" and work backwards. True science looks for evidence and accepts whatever "answer" that leads to. This is why scientific studies are blinded - so the researcher's biases don't affect the results of the...

Radar - what would you say is the difference between Unitarian Universalists and Quakers if neither have dogma? I have been to Unitarian services, but never to a Quaker service. Here in rural Iowa it's pretty much a choice between Catholic or a mix of traditional Protestant churches :(

SG, you certainly have a lot of knowledge, and I appreciate your input on these threads. Do you feel like you have an empty mind, like an "idiot" ? (per TTC chapter 20)?

Yes, I agree. And that's one of the reasons that repeated physical rebirths until enlightenment doesn't make sense to me. What if the sun engulfs the earth (a few billion years from now) before one reaches enlightenment? Nick the Pilot responded in a previous thread, to that same question, that...

OK, this "no-mind" or "unconscious comptence" concept sounds similar to when I play a piano composition from memory and I don't even think about where my hands are on the keyboard. So I can see how it applies to my physical actions in life. But how does this "empty mind" concept apply to...

Thanks to an earlier link from SG, I've been contemplating the Tao Te Ching. I'm curious to discuss an idea from chapter 20: "I am like an idiot, my mind is so empty" I have read similar concepts in other Eastern writings. Krishnamurti taught of the importance of an empty mind, without the...

That of course depends on one's actions in life, one's karma. I personally don't believe in either a literal rebirth/reincarnation or a literal heaven/hell. But IMHO the advantage of a rebirth belief is that it keeps one striving forward, pushing for constant improvement, focusing on one's...

ACOT - have you ever read Robert Louis Stevenson's "El Dorado"? It's my favorite literature on focusing on the journey, not the destination...

Hi Ben, so you don't believe in Natural Moral Law as Thomas is arguing for? I have no idea, other than I consider the Jewish/Christain creation story in the same "light" as other creation stories from across the world and the history of time - as just a story. I have no evidence that the...