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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (80094)	5/26/2000 6:12:00 PM
From: Rick Julian	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

Good. Now we've established that you, in fact, and in practice, hold certain beliefs. Now you paint with a very broad brush those whose beliefs relate to a higher power--relegating them all to some brand of automatons who surrender their rationality to the will of said higher power. That is such a sweeping indictment, and so ignorant of the variability of believers that, on its face, it defies rationality. It's Ismist. I'll trot my rationality out with the best, most "rational" subscribers of agnosticism and atheism any day. My spiritual beliefs give a dimension to my existence that makes it so rich and textured that I couldn't imagine life without them. Much as I couldn't imagine my life without the current of music that courses through my brain. (Actually I can imagine it, but given the choice, life without it would come in a very distant second.) Can I empirically demonstrate that I hear music, that I hear voices, that I have visions? Perhaps by their manifestation in my work, but how can I prove their genesis? Only I know. And when I'm in the studio, I KNOW when we've captured what I've imagined. The song says, "Yes" to me, when it resonates with the the melody that kept me tossing in my sleep-- I know, but there's no empirical data to support that contention. It just is. The notion of God resonates with me in a similar fashion. When I perceive the spirit, my mind says, "Yes." In those rare moments of lucidity I've experieced, the unity of existence, the symphony of the world's vibration is so clear, and apparent that it defies denial. It just is. And in those moments, I become aware of a power that is greater than me and my imagination. It is not the God of the Bible or The Koran, is not the Tao, or any other literal description I've read. It is. It is greater than words, no words are apt, and as the Tao te Ching says, the more one tries to describe it, the further away one is from it. There is one, and only one sentence in the Bible that I hold inerrant, "Know that I am." I know. And I wish only that those who don't would want to. If not, fine. If so, I am a willing witness to the majesty of the spirit that created all we perceive. If my belief makes me an irrational fool, I'm the happiest, most blissful fool I know, and I wouldn't change a thing for the respect of the "rational" crowd, or for all the world's gold. The film "Life is Beautiful" is a powerful testament to the insufficiency of a life ruled by rationality. Our perception is king, and I choose to believe in, and focus on the light, while others want to focus on the shadows--that focus bears its own fruit, but I don't have the appetite for it.