{"id":51,"date":"2006-01-26T16:09:00","date_gmt":"2006-01-27T00:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jimfreedom.com\/blog\/?p=51"},"modified":"2006-01-26T16:09:00","modified_gmt":"2006-01-27T00:09:00","slug":"truth-righteousness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.jimfreedom.com\/blog\/2006\/01\/26\/truth-righteousness\/","title":{"rendered":"Truth & Righteousness"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I would like to bring up the topics of righteousness and truth, which seem to be of great concern to conservatives. I will start with truth. <\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p>Truth is defined as sincerity in action, character and utterance; the state of being the case, fact. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia has a definition of truth as coming from firmness, stability, consistency and FAITHFULNESS. That last one is a new one to me. Webster\u2019s says that truth is conforming fact or reality. <\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p>The question I would have is who or what is it that defines what is reality or fact? Is it not the human instrument that we are experiencing life through? Then are we not filtering that experience through our mind with its memories and previous conditioning? How can we be sure that anything is, in fact, a fact? <\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p>Of course, the answer to these questions depending on what level of consciousness you are coming from. If you are interested in being really<\/u> honest with yourself then you recognize that you can not know anything for sure and the questions are silly. Yet, we ARE here in what appears to be human bodies experiencing life. So what do these human bodies WANT from that experience of life? Now that is a question that has significance and what defines what is perceived as FACT. <\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p>For example, I can imagine my wife (I am not married) is beautiful and when I see her I have a beautiful experience. Is that more preferred then imagining her to be ugly and every time I see her I have an ugly experience? You bet. Is she in FACT beautiful or ugly? There is no FACT to that effect. If I touch this woman here next to me and think of her as my wife, is she my wife? Am I dreaming that I have a wife, that I am touching her? Am I real?<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p>All of this was from my<\/u> perspective, or the perspective of \u201cI\u201d or self. What is this thing called \u201cI\u201d or self? Who or what am \u201cI\u201d that has this experience of beauty or ugliness, good or evil? And who or what is it that does the choosing between beauty and ugliness, good and evil? Who or what it is that thinks that \u201cI\u201d have a wife that \u201cI\u201d am touching?<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p>If I am born in Italy<\/st1:country-region><\/st1:place> I learn that fat women are beautiful and skinny women are ugly. If I am born in California<\/st1:state><\/st1:place> then I think skinny women are beautiful and fat women are not women. (Fat means you can not see their ribs.) <\/span><\/span>J<\/span><\/span> <\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p>Is it a FACT that my wife exist? If I put my hand on her body am I really putting my hand on her body or am I imagining I am putting my hand on her body and getting the shit kicked out of me because she is PMSing. <\/span><\/span>J<\/span><\/span> I can not \u2018prove\u2019 to even myself that my wife is real or not real because I have not proven that \u201cI\u201d am real yet. So facts are bullshit until I have understood the datum from which I am experiencing life. That \u2018datum\u2019 is self.<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p>I will get to righteousness eventually; hold on to your britches. <\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p>I am told that I have a body, a mind and a soul (and a wife, which has to be proven to me). The body part is easy, it hurt right now so it must be real. The mind is a collection of memories, thoughts, desire, opinions, etc that if I go looking for I can not find it. So the mind is questionable in fact because it actually does not reside anywhere that I can see, feel or touch with my body outside of the mental activity that I have in my body. Oops, that is the mind. Ok, so I found my mind. <\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Now I recognize that thoughts are electro-magnetic impulses traveling along the neurons of the brain (located in the head of the previously hurting body) so I can see that thoughts are kind of real. Then the mind is just the pattern of thoughts that go around in the brain. But what if the brain is run over by a big truck? Where does the mind go then? What happens if I stop thinking? Do \u201cI\u201d have a mind then? Good question. Let us stop thinking and see. (This is called meditation or watching as Jesus called it.) <\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This brings me to soul. I have no soul. I can not find it. The dictionary defines it as an immaterial<\/u> essence, animating principle or actuating cause of an individual life. Wow, that is a mouthful! All those word reflect just thoughts that are electro-magnetic impulses traveling along the neurons of the brain. So the soul is just like my wife, only an illusion in my brain. When the brain stops working (death or meditation) the wife and soul disappear. (Don\u2019t you sometimes wish you could just make your wife disappear like that?) Therefore, I must \u2018believe\u2019 (to accept as FACT; another thought) that I have a soul before there is one. If I do not believe in a soul I can not lose it. That pattern of electro-magnetic impulses traveling along the neurons of the brain has to be something that I find attractive enough to give more energy so that it can continue to travel around my brain. Since I do not choose this it does not continue and I have no soul. <\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Why would anybody want a soul anyway? Well, maybe they choose to believe (be LIE ve: be lying to ourselves) that they have a soul because that explains what happens to them (?) when they die. But they must do that because they choose to believe they are finite and limited. Being finite and limited creates fear of that which is outside of themselves so by believing in a soul they have a firm definition of who they are and firm boundaries that they can hide behind. If they were open minded and did not define themselves then they would have no need to \u2018believe\u2019 anything. So believing in soul creates fear and that fear can be used to control and manipulate them, thus making them slaves. I see no intelligent reason to believe in soul.<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p>This brings me to self. Is not self just another thought like soul? When I go looking for it a thought is all I experience. When I die or am in deep meditative trance the thought called self disappears. OR, maybe I could say that the INDIVIDUAL self disappears. Maybe that is the soul that disappears and not the self. For in deep meditation or death I find that all individuality disappears. <\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Am I using the word \u2018death\u2019 correctly here? My car \u2018died\u2019 the other day. I had to restart it but it did die. I \u2018die\u2019 periodically too, but I then am restarted or I restart myself. Well, maybe, depending on what this thing called \u201cI\u201d is that does this.<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Back to self\u2026in deep meditation or death self or individuality and sensation ceases but \u201cI\u201d seems to still be there. I would call this \u201cI\u201d Self, with a Capital \u201cS\u201d. The experience of this Self is infinite and eternal, but really I can not accurately talk about it for all words are by definition limited. So the experience of Self is not communicable with words. What I can talk about is the experience of the EFFECT of the experience of Self. But that is another story\u2026<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Anyway, self that is individual is only an electro-magnetic impulses traveling along the neurons of the brain. This \u2018self\u2019 is not lasting or real; it is just a temporary phenomenon that lasts as long as the human instrument last. <\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I am, therefore, the one that experiences \u2018truth\u2019 and it is the human instrument that \u2018proves\u2019 the facts that make truth. But all this is run through the mind, which is just electro-magnetic impulses traveling along the neurons of the brain. <\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p>What does this prove, that \u201cI\u201d can \u201cprove\u201d anything to myself and experience goodness by doing it. \u201cI\u201d am \u201ctruth\u201d. \u201cI\u201d am the way, the truth and the life. No ones experiences heaven on earth except by knowing this \u201cI\u201d that is Self. <\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p>This brings me to righteousness, <\/span><\/b>which <\/span><\/b>according to my dictionary is acting in accord with divine or moral law. Moral: of or relating to principles of right and wrong. Who is it that chooses what is right or wrong. Who is it that takes of the tree of knowledge of good and evil? Why, \u201cI\u201d do of course. But I am an illusion that bases my choices entirely on past experiences, programming or mental constructs. And why would I actually choose good or evil, right or wrong? Maybe because if produces pleasure or pain. I want to experience more pleasure than pain so I will label things as right or good so that I can have more pleasure and less pain. <\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The point is that \u201cI\u201d am the one who define what is right or wrong, good or evil. I can say to myself that some deity defines right and wrong, good and evil, and that this deity wrote it in a book, but that would be a lie because \u201cI\u201d am the one who CHOOSE to believe that. So it is \u201cI\u201d that chooses where I get my opinion of right and wrong, good and evil. \u201cI\u201d am the ultimate authority in my inner reality as to what I experience. I am the King of kings, God of gods in my inner kingdom\/reality. <\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p>So to be righteous all I have to do is act in accordance with what I have already defined as right and I have it. <\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p>I am the one that chooses what I believe is God. But it is \u201cI\u201d that made this choice, so \u201cI\u201d am greater than the mental construct or belief that I created. \u201cI\u201d am the Creator of the creator called God. I choose to believe in God so I am greater than God. If I define myself as \u201cone with God (or My Father)\u201d then I am the divine that defines moral law. Bingo.<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p>Was this fun? I enjoyed it. I might even post this on my website. Such fun! It is just intellectual masturbation but I got off from it. Did you? Did you choose to see it as beautiful and hence have a beautiful experience? Or were you asleep and found it as ugly and hence have an ugly experience? <\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p>Anyway, the final \u2018proof\u2019 in what I say comes when you care enough to go off and die (meditation\/watch) as Jesus and I and thousands of others have done. Other than that you are just believers like the guys that drove the planes into the World Trade Centers. <\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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<\/o:p><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I would like to bring up the topics of righteousness and truth, which seem to be of great concern to conservatives. I will start with truth. Truth is defined as sincerity in action, character and utterance; the state of being the case, fact. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia has a definition of truth as coming […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jimfreedom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jimfreedom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jimfreedom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jimfreedom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jimfreedom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.jimfreedom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jimfreedom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jimfreedom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jimfreedom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}