The FREEDOM Blog

Over the last couple of decades, it seems, there has been a very strong tendency for people to reference themselves as "Spiritual, but not religious." While there is nothing wrong with that per se, it does point to a deeper aspect of spirituality that is being tossed aside - God. These days, it has become nearly politically incorrect to reference God. In fact, many literally cringe at the mere mention of the Creators reference. And why is that? Because "I am the creator!" many proclaim. "It is all MY creation, MY projection, MY reality." While this is not specifically untrue, it is not the entirety of the truth, and I must confess, over the years, I have done my part to create this damage as well. In part, it is because, for centuries, there was so much focus on the Personal side of the Absolute - focusing on God the Father, which was intrinsic to the patriarchic 'old boy' school of Judeo-Christian ethics, and so forth. The rewarding and punish...

I want to tell you a little story, or go down a little "What-if" journey.... We'll start by saying - What if you were born in a particular place and it is the same place that your parents and their parents and THEIR parents and...well you get the picture... where everybody was born. And what if this place was, oh, say a prison or a looney bin. But you wouldn't know it as you were born there, as were your parents and everyone else. In fact, there would be virtually no one you knew that could tell you what it truly was. Oh sure, occassionally some whack-job would say it was a prison or nut-house, but, we, of course, following the politically/spiritually/culturally correct dictums knew way better. This was OUR world and it was a great place and we would make it better and sweller in every way, and we would be happy (all evidence to the contrary put aside). And so, we go about our lives, convinced by a few of the elders in this place, that we could, in fact, create a beau...

Resting in quietness. So little to do or say. The winter calls into deep chasms of peace, With no regard for the rest. Nothing to seek Nothing to attain to Nothing even to Be Absolute Presence Absolute Absence Unborn Eternally Unborn

As you can probably see, we've changed the name from Atma Enlightenment Blog to The Freedom Blog. The reasons for this are several: 1. To far too many people, the term enlightenment has too much charge or meaning associated with it. In India, the term is referred to as mukti or moksha, which literally mean to be free, released... i.e. freedom. 2. Enlightenment (or the concept of it) has an either/or quality to it - you are or you aren't, and while there is some truth to that, it is more involved than a simple dichotomy, and again goes back to that charge or association of the concept. 3. Freedom entails much more. The basic principle of freedom (or enlightenment) is letting go of ALL concepts, habitual patterns, beliefs, etc. and that includes those associated with living in the world via body, mind, intellect, and so forth. Enlightenment, in concept, generally means a non-dual REALization, a true recognition that there is only ONE thing going on here. By it's nature, the ...

"The truth will set you free. But first, it will piss you off. " Gloria Steinem Since the last email/blog I have received quite a lot of responses. - in fact, probably the most responses I've ever received. And rather than being negative, or people asking to be taken off the list (only received 1 of those), people were very supportive. If anything, I felt that people were and are angry, confused, or feeling hopeless, but in many cases, perhaps felt badly about that anger, and wondered what benefit it had, and what they could do. So first, I'd like to reprint something which just came in my mail in the most recent issue of LA Yoga Magazine, Andrew Harvey (author of The Divine Feminine, Teachings of Rumi, etc.) said in an interview: "The patriarchal mystical systems have demonized anger, because they are terrified of the potential deranging force that it can unleash. But they're also terrified of the ways in which outrage can lead to a fundamental readjustment ...

"To think deeply in our culture is to grow angry and to anger others; ad if you cannot tolerate this anger, you are wasting the time you spend thinking deeply. One of the rewards of deep thought is the hot glow of anger at discovering a wrong, but if anger is taboo, thought will starve to death." Jules Henry I recently found the above quote in the book, Walking on Water by Derrick Jensen. If you don't know about him, you should. There are a number of Youtubes, and he has quite a few books out. The only one I've read is the above, but I'm enjoying it. What is Derrick Jensen about? The end of civilization. Me too! Not too long ago, a friend said he looked down on the city and said to himself, "This isn't going anywhere." But I disagree. See this link as proof: http://survivalacres.com/wordpress/?p=716 The Link mentions how they burried a car 50 years ago and would go to whoever could guess (back then) how many people would be living in Tulsa in the ...

  What DOES it mean to be human? Virtually everything that you have learned is wrong. It is NOT your fault. The problem is, nearly everything you learn has somebody's agenda behind it, very often the obvious ones of making money, etc., but very often hidden. This is why our western society is so very sick. We are taught about political, social, cultural, gender, and religious correctnesses. We are NOT taught about HUMAN correctness. We are told we should follow the laws of the government, but not the universal laws. We are told we should follow the "correct-ness" laws, but not the human laws. We believe we can make up the human laws. We can not!   The largest organ of the body is the skin. In a grown man, it covers about 19 square feet and weighs about 8 pounds. A piece of skin the size of a quarter contains more than 3 million cells, 100 to 340 sweat glands, 50 nerve endings and 3 feet of blood vessels.  Many people are aware of research done with monkeys no...