philosophy

However, science, by its very nature, forms its own inherent boundaries to man__ progress. . . Focused as it is on the world out there, categorizing and measuring, theorizing and concluding all things based on external evidence and proof, science misses the core of life: the consciousness doing the experiencing.

But Lao Tzu__ teaching suffers from the major problem endemic to such visionaries. In the intervening two and a half millennia, his words have been misinterpreted and distorted by generations of adherents until his message is riddled with meaningless ritual and dogma. Taoism contracted the conceptual plague: it became a religion.

Since the effects of your life that lead to pain and annoyance are always consequences of inner elements, what you commonly regard as __roblems_ are more accurately seen as outer symptoms of inner, causal problems. The practical approach is to begin looking at those specific aspects of your life that are not as you desire to find their source, rooted in your mindset.

The only difference between holding one god as exclusive or supreme and believing in many gods specialized in function is the number.

The real Journey is a personal venture into your own mind content. Nobody, not the greatest mystic, the most vaunted guru, the most hailed psychologist, though they might shuttle you along the trail for a ways, will get you there. Only you yourself can do that.

Visionaries have two principal means to immediately communicate insights beyond people__ mundane, common mindset. They can liken awareness to equivalent situations in life to which the listener can relate _ using metaphor, analogy and other grammatical tools to picture points. Or they can illustrate how listeners can gain such awareness _ a path to proceed on, techniques to engage, what to look for within.

Had the common man in (first century) Palestine thought about it at all, he would have considered the world flat, with land riding on and surrounded by water below and above. Keeping water up there was the __irmament_ _ a great, canopy-like dome not too far beyond where birds could fly. Indeed, the firmament had gates for the sun and moon to go through, and through which water fell as rain from the waters above.

Reality works in this fashion: what you hold in your mind _ the self-image,hopes and expectations, world view, beliefs, fears, feelings and all else _ becomes realized in your life, continuously.

The key realization to delving inwards to deal with the roots of outer symptoms is this: once you have clearly identified the core, inner roots to a problem, you then have authority over the situation. . . If, though, you never delve within. . . you will not eliminate the inner source of theproblem and thus never fully extinguish the external symptom.

You encounter, at its core, a subjective Reality, one based on meaning and value reflective of your own Self, not an objective universe, cold, particle-based and indifferent as science projects.

If you__e come to see that the image you absorbed while growing up is not valid, and you launch out on a prefabricated Journey, you are most likely to simply replace it with another, fancier paradigm _ the mind is that easily fooled by its own base view.

Understanding points Jesus presented to his peers requires exploring how Jews, local Greeks, Romans and other ethnic mixes inhabiting the region perceived reality. Without a clear recognition of the common ancient mindset, regard for precepts presented in the Gospels and Christian tradition becomes distorted by a default _ yet highly flawed _ impression that people back then thought and acted like people today

It is vital to see not only what Christianity asserts, but where its precepts came from _ how they evolved from primitive, superstitious metaphysical claims into __ospel Truth_.

As to __acts_ as a basis of understanding things in this investigative age: if there is anything greatly preferred to valid, reliable information in our culture, it is the appearance of facts _ nice, tidy story lines that seem complete and perfunctory, stories that can be widely circulated in mutual agreement, despite lacking validity. And, as there are absolutely no historical facts concerning the life of Jesus of Nazareth _ not a single word about him recorded during his lifetime _ Christianity provides such a wonderful substitute appearance.

The fact is: Jesus wrote not a solitary word that survives. Equally astounding is historical silence: not a single historical account refers to him during his lifetime from any source whatsoever, Roman or Jewish, official or personal.

Simply put, the relative age of a philosophical perspective has nothing to do with its veracity. It is pure illusion to imagine that just because a view of life was held and put to words long ago, that it is more valid.

Above, in discussing the perceptive notions of Jesus, remarkable concepts of Plato or the highly introspective lessons of Gautama and Lao Tzu, it took considerable discussion to explore the meaning and relate it to How Life Works. Islam presents no such deep pool of thought to pierce.

Of course, the original (anonymous) writer of (the Gospel of) John didn__ use quotes _ as they didn__ exist in written Greek _ but the translator/publisher of the modern Bible does. And that style strongly implies a validity that is pure illusion.