Religion To Identify

As human beings, it is in our nature to form relationships. We do this so that we can identify ourselves; we all want to “be somebody.” As we grow up, we are subjected to all types of people, groups, styles, cliques, political parties...etc. We are conditioned to believe certain things about each, and we decide exactly how we want to portray ourselves. Basically, we are all just playing a role. Then our lives are spent trying to uphold that image of ourselves, as we are cast in the play of life, according to the script. If you think about that, it’s exactly correct.

Religion is just another form of identification, another character trait. This one, in particular, displays morals. Being a member of a church says, “I am a good person, or at least I’m trying to be; you could tell by the fish symbol on my car or the cross around my neck.” or “If I was a bad person, would I be walking to Temple wearing a small hat.” (If this type of rhetoric is offensive to you then I’m sure I will be adequately punished by your loving God.....unless of course, my God has a say in the matter.)   

This is not a conscious decision, necessarily, unless you are purposely trying to cover a certain lifestyle or purifying your image in the eyes of, say, a judge or a parole board or a possible mother-in-law. Most church-goers attend mass in accordance with who they think they are or want to be. The antithesis, I suppose, would be joining a biker gang. (Please don’t tell me you could be in a biker gang and go to church, too.) I caught a glimpse of how this took place with Christianity, as it became an organization known as the Catholic Church, when I first began to attend a Buddhist Zendo in West Palm Beach, Fl.

The congregation, when at full strength, consisted of only about 20 people, with a “pastor” and a handful of devotees. The practice of sitting in meditation is called Zazen, which is much different from the political rallies known as “mass” in the Western world. It took place inside a church of some Christian denomination, who compassionately leased the space to these poor souls, who would obviously never reach eternal happiness by worshiping a Chinese god (which is not at all what was happening). Besides the obvious violation of their number one rule, clearly set aside for the parishioners and not the governing body, whose duty it is to maximize profits, the arrangement is a no-brainer.

Actually, small Buddhist gatherings like this take place all over the country in rented areas that provide adequate cover. They are simply a group of aspirants who are looking for the salvation and truth that they aren’t receiving from their religions, which are all based on the same “rules” and all insist that their God is more loving and more peaceful than the next, while they murder each other to prove it.

(Looking for alternatives, Islam has positioned itself as an evil religion in the eye of the West, although it is about politics, not God. Islam is a perfect identity for those who oppose, or feel slighted by, the US, such as African Americans, but it is only a different spin on the exact same story.)

It wasn’t until the latter part of the twentieth century, when a guy name Shunryu Suzuki-Roshi brought Zen Buddhism across the Pacific to the United States. When Suzuki arrived in San Francisco in the 60’s, there was only one place where Zen Buddhism was practiced, an old Jewish Synagogue, no doubt allotted them through some financial arrangement.

He started igniting much interest throughout the beatnik community, especially after being mentioned in Alan Watts’ writings. It spread quickly, considering Suzuki’s fear that the mind-set in the West is not prepared to receive it.  Although I have no doubt as to the validity of the teachings, I must believe that the majority of these new, hippie-Buddhists saw this as yet another identity for those who opposed government views.

(I’ve outlined the allure of Buddhist teachings, which seem to trim the fat and leave out the stories that have been manipulated over the centuries. It was this idea of God as a principle, a source of life and true love, and the essence of everything that attracted me to the teaching, but I made the same fundamental mistake of identifying myself with it. When asked my religious affiliation, I would proudly answer, “Buddhism,” as if I had found something they had not. That is the ego.)

Now, I’ve described the lure of this practice many times before; it is certainly a less mysterious and less confusing path to eternal life, for those who are serious about finding it, but then again, so were the teachings of Christ compared to the Old Testament, as we see by Jesus’ consolidation of ten laws into only two. Of course, once removed from those who were truly touched by Him, Christianity became only something to identify with. People began to declare proudly that they were Christian. There’s the ego again. So, I guess I’m comparing the emergence of Zen Buddhism in California to that of Christianity in first century Jerusalem. ( I won’t go as far as saying that Suzuki is  Jesus Christ, although it would fit the analogy. Both brought a new way to connect with God to a region that had been previously misguided, coincidentally by the same book.)

It should be obvious by now exactly how Zen Buddhism became popular in the U.S. It came at a time when Americans were actively looking for anything to identify with that was anti-establishment, or just plain different. They needed God, as we all do, but to succumb to religion of the evil empire, which was causing massive bloodshed for apparently no reason, was unacceptable. Remember, this is also the time when Scientology was popular, a radical religious cult among the Hollywood personnel, so it’s no surprise that Buddhism, endorsed by the most influential beatnik writers, would catch on.

I’m afraid Suzuki’s fears may have been warranted. I think perhaps Americans, and most people in the First-World today, have been far too hypnotized by their egos to truly accept Buddhism as a whole. Of course, I am not suggesting that those who have picked up where Suzuki left off and who write, teach, and practice zazen in the U.S., as taught by Buddhist monks in the East, are frauds. In fact, I know this isn’t true. It is the idea of Buddhism as a religion that I’m skeptical of. Buddha’s instructions are simply philosophical principles, called “metaphysics,” which morphed into the term “science” when testing methods became stronger and more verifiable, around the 17th century with our pals, Newton and Galileo. A religion is just a group, with which one could identify--another group.

I’ve seen it. After about 3 months of my own zazen practice, which basically consists of sitting meditation, some walking meditation, and chants, I started to become recognizable to the rest. It was a very nice connection, by the way. There isn’t much chatter within these congregations; nobody is adamant about telling you who they are or what they do or why. Nobody asks either. The alliance is formed in silence, so much so that it was almost surreal to go out into the everyday world with them, as if that Orthodox (or whatever) church that was paying dividends to the landlord on the religions off-time was a porthole to ancient China.

That’s how I felt when they asked me to follow everyone to the bagel shop up the road for some light breakfast and small talk.

Back to the practice, quickly, because I was new to the whole thing, I had great difficulty quieting my mind and inviting myself into a meditative state. I was understanding the principles and experiencing some decent moments of insight, but to stop the incessant complaining, worrying, planning, calculating, and daydreaming will all but impossible. I was fixated in the past or the future and could not stay in the present, and even though I understood when they said things like: “observe yourself...,” when your mind won’t shut up, that all sounds like rhetoric. Still, it was therapeutic; it was necessary. Of course, though, in my mind I was the only one, out of the six who came to sit that day, who couldn’t achieve a complete state of oneness with the Divine. (Yeah, right.)

Because it was such a small group, including the Master (the main guy who had the key to the place), I was attending this breakfast with the inner circle of the Zendo. Besides the Master, Doshin, there were his number one and two, both women, a couple of zendo regulars, one of whom was writing a book and who taught me to sit with the correct posture and some new chick. I had never seen her before, but apparently she knew everyone well. By the time we got to the bagel place, I realized that it was her cell phone that had gone off repeatedly during the half-hour of silent Zazen. She must have forgotten to shut it off.

Listen, she was a nice enough lady for sure. It’s just how quickly it dawned on me that we weren’t going to have a deep discussion about a chapter in Suzuki’s book at a table for six at Joe’s Bagels. (Suzuki is revered for bringing Buddhism to the West) These were very much normal people and more so, normal Americans. They spoke of their small congregation and the plans they had in store for it. I detected nothing but sincerity, but I could see that the new girl was not “into it.” She was anxious, often going outside to use the phone. She claimed she was in a rush and was constantly checking her watch.

I don’t want to sound self-righteous. I wasn’t expecting her to be some sort of sage, but she was ordained as a priest! I know this because she flaunted it proudly, as if her team won the trophy in the bowling league. Let me put it this way, she spoke about Buddhism like it was a social club, gossiping about the members of her “new” congregation, where it was obvious that she was involved in the politics...you see? Politics, again. Add to this, the classy business suit, her rudeness to the waiter, and her overall persona which screamed out, “I’m avant garde from New York City, and I’m very worldly. In fact, I’m an ordained Buddhist!”and I saw a socialite who caught on to something with which to identify.

Now, this woman isn’t hurting anybody, and like I said, she is a nice person all in all. It just shows how the Divine principle becomes a group, and lost souls (all of us) long to identify with groups. They are attracted to it; they want to express themselves in it; government loves to “gather” constituents, and there you have a religion. Only God isn’t involved anymore. 

Plume Discusses Zeitgeist (part one)

After sharing his piece on religion and government being one in the same, a friend of The Professor, Craig Blake, furthered the opinion by sharing a link to a film, or actually a series of short documentaries, by director, Peter Joseph, one that unfortunately lacked the mass appeal of more important displays of the latter decade, such as Avatar. Here is the movie description as seen online:  

Zeitgeist is a documentary about a) the origin of christian faith b) how American banks have seized world power at the beginning of the 20th century c) how these 2 items are related to the wars fought in the 20th and 21st century.


As we said, there is now a series of updates and addenda which include the economy, 9-11, and others. They can be found on youtube.com or somewhere like it on this glorious and ubiquitous home-base called the Internet, our new Zion. They are truly mandatory viewing, and following up with the premise are other works entirely, such as Loose Change and The Obama Deception, also easily found on YouTube.
Unlike some politically motivated presentations in the past, which simply demonized the administration of George W. Bush, this new wave of information sheds a light on the entire government and religious institutions. 

(This new "fad" is simply the opening acts to the movement the professor has been suggesting, or at least, it is a display of the power afforded the people by the information super-highway, the Internet, the monster that can not be controlled by the powers that be.)

Starting from around 300 AD, when our friend Emperor Constantine made Christianity the law of the Roman empire, Joseph's views are identical to the Professor. So, it is agreed that the bible was devised by the Roman leaders, based on the writings of political radical, Paul of Tarus, or St. Paul, mixed with pagan beliefs and hand crafted for the purpose of governing, not saving the eternal soul of its citizens.

However, the movie goes on to actually deny the existence of Jesus Christ altogether, claiming that he was nothing more than a pagan story, based on a long line of characters found throughout Egyptian, Greek, and other ancient civilizations, who supposedly represented the Sun. The argument is very well presented, based on the writings of an author named Acharia S, who has written books about the topic, and artfully entertaining. Unfortunately, according to Plume, this thirty minute segment, entitled The Greatest Story Ever Told, may have made a mistake.

"The religious portion of the film was certainly interesting and entertaining. However, I tend to disagree and believe that Jesus was indeed an enlightened individual, not unlike the Buddha or Aristotle, a man whose sole purpose was to teach and to guide, as others throughout history who have shared the Divine knowledge with us. I come to this conclusion simply because of the truth in his teachings. This is the reason why I say to Christians that following Christ can, indeed, be your salvation. It is the church you should be wary of," Plume said.

He continued, "Of course, no man on this Earth, in his present state of consciousness, can know for certain what happened and who existed over two thousand years ago. Therefore, it is all pure speculation.

"It is my understanding that Zeitgeist was originally intended as an video art display at an exhibit in New York City, and for that purpose, the sky's the limit; in that context, I applaud the show. But, since it is now being used, as it should, to bring a much needed awareness to the people and actually promote a utopian concept called The Venus Project, I feel that perhaps it should have been amended. It's not that the information wasn't valid; I just don't feel that the actual life of Jesus or even his existence is relevant to the ultimate goal. 

"It seems irrelevant whether Jesus Christ walked the Earth performing miracles, or if St. Paul was even accurate in his depiction of him, twenty years after the fact. What is truly noteworthy is the fact that some three hundred years later, the story of his life, along with the laws of God, as presented by Moses in Israel and topped off with their own pagan beliefs (most likely those cited in the film, do you see how it all comes together?), became the Romans imperial law. Then, once merged with government, the Holy Bible, as it was called, never looked back and became the official way to control the masses, turning into the Roman Catholic church.

"However, once you denounce the Christians' Messiah, you alienate millions of Americans, thus invalidating the rest of the film. From this standpoint, if I were pulling the strings, I would probably just eliminate that segment from public viewing outside of an art project. It's just unnecessary.

"With that said, the film is eye-opening and should be the start, not the end, of an all out investigation headed up by the only person each individual on this planet can trust----- themselves."

The movies, at least the addendum, promotes The Venus Project. This is supposedly our Heaven on Earth, not a monetary system, but a system based on resources. We have the resources to sustain everyone on the planet forever. We have energy in the form of solar, tidal, wave, and wind, as well as geo-thermal, and we may find more. Between those mentioned, we can energize the planet forever.


Instead, we use fossil fuels, and would you just look at what that has gotten us. According to the social engineers at TVP, we use airplanes that clog up the atmosphere and can be used to destroy buildings, when they have technology called Mag-Lev trains, which use magnets to propel a shuttle through a tube that runs under water or land and never wears down. It can get to L.A. from here (N.Y.) in a half an hour”  


Plume also comments on the film's exposing of the Federal Reserve, as the centralized bank, which lend us money with interest that is paid directly with an unconstitutional income tax, “It’s unbelievable what has been perpetrated against us. Anyone who has ever felt that pain, that resistance to do what everyone relentlessly told you was ‘the way it is’ and that you had to just suck it up, struggle, save, work your ass off doing NOTHING that allows you to grow as a person.


They are stealing our lives! I, for one, will detach myself from the government in every way, stripping down to the bare necessities and entertaining myself with knowledge. Learning is free, and it is my favorite thing to do. It is power. Mixed with our weapon, the Internet, it can be spread at the speed of light. The Sarcastic Order of Metaphysical Monks, under myself and Yo Dali Mama, are in full support of Peter Joseph and others like him, such as Alex Jones, Zeitgeist, Loose Change, and The Venus Project. I almost see, now, the projections of the world’s end, which always seem to be in the beginning of this century. It is usually based on the fact that things are so bad. I say things are beginning to blossom.”

Professor Plume has been acting even stranger than normal; although in his defense, he truly seems to believe something special is on the horizon, and his eyes are fixed up and outward, as they say Alexander’s were. Not that we are suggesting anything here at the Sarcastic Temple. Haha.


Plume to Peter Joseph


Bravo, Mr. Joseph. Bravo. This is just great work and a true display of our power, power that we don’t realize we have or need yet but will soon be proven vital in our fight for freedom, not the freedom they told us we won in 1776, thanks to good old George Washington, but true freedom. To be able to share this knowledge, as Mr. Blake did for me and the others who are in our social knit is critical. Knowledge is power, but without communication, it can never be properly utilized.

Enhanced lines of communication won the war for Lincoln and helped free a great many. I applaud Mr. Joseph for this excellent film, and I salute the beautiful Anarchy of the Internet.


Let’s summarize the movie parts for those who haven’t spent the two-plus hours....yet, and I implore you to take some time out of your “busy” lives to give it due:


Religion


It starts off with religion as I mentioned, and it is exactly what we talk about here, post-Constantine. Remembering what I said earlier, let's take it as an artful display for those with a truly open-mind and ownership of his/her own soul.

The film makes some interesting suppositions regarding Jesus Christ, such as illustrating the similarities between many pagan Sun-gods, or Sons of God, including 12 apostles, miracles and death and resurrection. The research is wonderful and it checks out, in some places. Of course, that type of information is always scattered.

Mind you, no single man on this planet in this present state of consciousness could possibly know the exact truth about the very particulars of who, what, when. where, or how, but they build a great argument. They come to the same exact conclusion as we do here: religion and government are one in the same. It is a matter of making rules and enforcing them with divine backing.


That final point, which is perfectly consistent, is all that matters. Although the pagan parallels were interesting and believable, as I said, completely debunking the story of Jesus is simply too much for the fanatics to handle. I mean, come on, these are the same people that believe dinosaurs roamed, at our side, 4000 years ago!

I feel it is safer to leave it open. Jesus’ words ring true with timeless wisdom, whether borrowed from the Kaballah or taught by a man named Jesus at the Sea of Galilee. He can be your “way,” not your governor. That is NOT his mission.

Zeitgeist is all lies!! (condensed)

When you call it a flat out lie and tell Christians that Christ was a recycled pagan god, they shut it off right there. They drop all semblance of rational thought and put up an involuntary shield. Think about it. You are essentially telling them that everything they stand for is a lie, and that may not be exactly correct, nor is it the most important fact. What I mean is, "stroke them."

To prove the point: After watching the entire Zeitgeist, this is all some bible-beater had to say about it:


(This is an anonymous post by a Christian, who disagreed with the film, found on a forum called GodLikeProductions.com. Spooky, huh? Actually, when I say disagree, I don’t mean to imply a reasonable debate. Religions simply yell blasphemy and condemn the opposition to hell.)

...Most of the information in this video seems to come from Acharya S's book, The Christ Conspiracy (1999), which is a sensationalist book which has zero academic credibility. If you want to learn about Horus you can read the ancient myths about him--
Egyptian Mythology: Horus
Encyclopedia Mythica: Horus
The Eye Of Horus
Tektonics: Horus, Isis, Osiris

Let's go over just some of the data:

1. Horus was not born of a Virgin--that's a lie.
2. Horus was not baptized. That's a complete fabrication. "Anup the Baptizer"?--show me where you find that! That's a lie.
3. Horus never walked on water. He performed miracles, but raising the dead and walking on water were not among them. Nor did he cast out demons.
4. Horus had disciples--but you can't show me a single reference to his having twelve. That's a lie.
5. Horus never taught in the temple at age 12. That's a lie. Read the accounts above--it's not there.
6. Where was ever said that was Horus crucified? That's a lie! He died in a later version of the story and was brought back to life--but Jesus' "resurrection" was more than a mere coming back to life. His body was transformed and changed. Anyways, it was only later added to the Horus legend...


Do you believe it? Sounds like the dinosaur website; doesn’t it? This was my response:


PLUME’S RESPONSE To THE CHRISTIAN


Can you not see the narrow-mindedness of your arguments? Who cares what miracles each one performed performed or how many apostles they travelled with or who was baptized? That has nothing to do with the point. The simple fact is that science, which was born of metaphysics, the philosophy of life and God, as studied by Aristotle, St. Augustine of Hippo, St. Thomas Aquinas and many, many others, disproves everything in the Bible as untrue, as does archaeology, geology, biology, zoology, meteorology, surrounding historical data, common sense, and the very nature of God. It is completely unsubstantiated.


The retorts from the church that I've heard in regard to matters such as dinosaurs or the parting of the Red Sea are ludicrous. They are pointing to vague descriptions of some lizard to be translated as proof that dinosaurs roamed the Earth, 65 million years after every respectable researcher ever to find a fossil suggests they did, and chariot wheels at the bottom the Sea, relatively close to shore, to have verified that tall tale of Moses leading a mass exodus of Jews out of Egypt, something that missed the Egyptian record books.

And, we are to believe that men of that age lived to upward of 900 years of age. Why then is life expectancy at 70 and RISING? Did we flip the odometer?


And you speak of an attempt by Muslims to discredit Christianity, yet they are the same exact religion, both stemming from Judaism! They have the same exact story, same exact concept, and same bibles, minus some additions and corrections, of course. Each religion has even been sub-divided, mainly over bull-crap facts like which son of Abraham did God gave land to. My God would have cleared that up before 3,000 years of bloodshed took place over it.


Moses, who was most likely an Egyptian Pharoah, but was certainly a political figure in ancient Egypt broke off to begin a nation called Israel. He had to make rules built around One God. the reason I say he was the Pharoah, Amenhotep, is because he was known to have supported the God of Aten, one God, the Sun, instead of many gods. See, one God gives you more authority. One king, one God, get it?


So, Moses was pretty successful with that nation, I'd say. Sure, they were conquered by many empires over the next century, but they kept their sovereignty in tact for the most part. They were run by a political/religious group called the Pharisees (and a couple of others, like the Sadducees)

Then, under the Roman Empire, a Jewish Pharisee named St. Paul, who was a known radical and actually spent his last days in jail, began a new upstart political party, Christianity.


Now look, I believe Jesus Christ may have been a truly enlightened individual, even the son of God, as we all are! I say that because his words ring true with the timeless knowledge. It is the same that was known to the Ancient Egyptians, helping them to ascend to higher consciousness and build great pyramids, and to Abraham, the Kaballah, and for that matter, was acheived by Siddharta the Buddha and Lao Tse in the East.


The other thought would be that religion in itself, such as the Ancient Egyptian awareness of spirit and, hence, their amazing understanding of the universe, is born of that same timeless knowledge and the stories are just that...stories. This is where I see your "obvious" discrepancies as petty and pointless. They are stories, and they were hijacked and used to rule and govern. Principles became rules that were justly punishable, even by death, even by war.


So, Paul riled up a new political movement, the Christians, who were persecuted at first until they began to pick up steam and were eventually adopted as the political party/religion of the ruling Emperor, Constantine. Religion, namely Christianity, had made it to the BIG stage, The Roman Empire. Constantine then re-wrote the "Bible" to be a Roman constitution, using their pagan traditions and stories to give it some flair. See, finding the Truth is not that theatrical.


Where do you think Christmas comes from, with Santa Clause and evergreen trees? What about the Easter bunny? They are pagan rituals that were thrown in by the great emperor and those who followed, and they stuck.


The same thing happened when Muhammad altered the Old Testament to form a religion for the tribes of Mecca and Medina to unite under and, thus, to rule them with. It eventually spun that into the Rashiduns, a group that grew to eventually take out the Persian and the Byzantine Empires and came to be know as the Ottoman Empire, now a bunch of people who found oil and opium, are being exploited by our crooked government, and who worship the SAME GOD CHRISTIANS DO.


Listen, there is nothing wrong with uniting again with our Divine source, listen to the words of Jesus and follow them, but nowhere in them do I hear of war or political parties or rules. The commandments are not rules; they are guidelines. Jesus said there were only two, love God and your neighbor. So, tell me; if you did that why would you need to be told not to steal or kill??


Religion divides us, just the way you are so afraid to be associated with a pagan. Do you really believe that EVERYONE who was on this planet before Jesus was born went to Hell? Is that a viewpoint expressed of love? How could it be? How egotistical are we to believe that?


Ancient wisdom remains completely consistent, regardless of the names or the stories, and the so called “rules” are nothing more than resistance to the very nature produced by religion and government, which are one in the same. Do you see that?

Human Beings are not thieves by nature, nor are they murderers. Evil is not inherent in us; it is learned. It is based on fear of not having enough. We all have enough!! It is money that causes evil, which is government and, as you know, is religion too.


We have the resources available to eliminate our fear of loss, which is created by the illusion of scarcity put forth by our government, one that starts and stops the flow of currency and oil and raises the price of goods and keeps us chasing that dollar to the point of barely surviving. That is why we steal and COVET! We need no more currency.


No more government, being allowed to control the rate of progression in our technology. That is what we, as human beings do! We create and build; we progress. We do not use our minds to create an advertising campaign or count money or sell stocks! We are here to grow as a people.


Unfortunately, as long as we are kept divided by religion and government and we say things like, "..those Muslims over there say this and that," without realizing that we are all just Human Beings, we are doomed. And that, my friend, is Hell. As a matter of fact, I would say we are there now!


I was baptized and raised Roman Catholic. I was an Altar Boy and everything. I know the Bible pretty well. Never is Christ self-righteous and yet all Christians seem to be. Christ was not involved in Politics. He was not into damning people to hell. When he speaks of eternal suffering have you ever thought he may have meant inner suffering, such as worry, fear, anxiety, grief, regret? Or evil such as war, murder, theft, adultery...?


If we don't wake up we will just continue to be nothing but cattle. This is what Zeitgeist is!! Embrace it! Stop your petty debates over how many damn disciples some god had compared to Jesus. That is RIDICULOUS!!!!!!!