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Hi, I'm a 17 year old interested in programming. I come to this website in the hopes of me being able to stick to a religion.

You clearly don't understand Christianity, nor the theology of the folk that might call themselves Progressive Christians. You don't enter into discussion, you won't answer simple questions and you are (I suspect) a sock puppet that has been here before. And post spam all over the internet.

I was browsing through my own Blog and picked out one at random. On Nothingness, which must have occupied me at the time, pre Covid, post Brexit. Reading through I can barely believe that I wrote it, a vague lack of connection. Was that me? Maybe dementia is on the way. The "Krapp's Last Tape" syndrome. But here it is. Enjoy the pictures, maybe the best part. Lately I have, amongst other things - great and small - been delving into a few philosophical works on "nothingness". All much ado about nothing, but it does seem to be the battleground of much inter-faith dialogue these days. Perhaps there is a more appropriate word than battleground but maybe not. Again, given the lack of belief in anything much in our pop culture - apart from celebrity itself - any talk and debate on "nothingness" will obviously pass under the radar of many, and if heard of at all, be dismissed as academic and of no concern by those seeking to "live life to the full." Nothingness? How about a selfie! I will now drift onto the subject of forgiveness which has also gained my attention for one reason or another. I'm sure there is a connection between "nothingness" and forgiveness (although it escapes me at the moment) but this change of subject is in keeping with my rambles, so I shall continue. For me, I am sure that forgiveness, like all things, is simply a by-product of wisdom - wisdom defined as the mind/heart, thirsting for emancipation, seeing direct into the heart of reality. Trying to forgive because it is the right thing to do, this itself a belief, just disintegrates into the self-righteousness of the Pharisee. "I" have forgiven. Subject and object. Each distinct. William Blake, English mystic, poet and painter, saw the need not to dissect, and thus saw that mutual forgiveness of each vice opens the gates of paradise. Jacob's Ladder (Detail) by William Blake For me, Grace is the heart of Reality, the hidden ground of love, a love that "has no why". Grace is all things; mercy, relationship, diversity, wisdom and potential. Knowing we live by, in, and with grace, forgiveness flowers towards all others. In fact, often, ideally, no hurt or fault is even recognised. Knowing deeply our own need for mercy is the ground of forgiveness towards others. Maybe we can try to grade ourselves according to some scale of wrongs, acts or thoughts, but as I see it this misses the heart of reality. Lack of forgiveness, a judgemental heart, witnesses to having not accepted ourselves. Pure acceptance is the catalyst of all potentials and becomes the necessary ground of any diversification which follows. Creating a scale of wrongs, all according to our own calculations, before pure acceptance, inevitably chains us to the world of birth and death. Trust the ground Cherishing opinions, identifying with them, is a form of self justification; but when not "cherished" they can become appropriate in each unique moment, unclaimed yet participating in a truly life bestowing becoming. The dharma is for passing over, not for grasping. So it is terrible to read of those who condemn others, terrible for our own hearts to harbour hatred. This is simply to be out of synch with Reality. Well, that's it really. Not sure exactly what nothingness has to do with this except for the faint suggestion that Meister Eckhart's "love has no why" somehow connects things in ways beyond conventional logic. Just to say that as far as I understand, to put the "eastern" idea of nothingness in direct opposition to the "western" idea of Being, is to go astray. "Nothingness" to a Western ear, is simply a term of negation, and in the religious sphere, invokes ideas of nihilism, this opposed to the positive ideas of "salvation" and heavenly cities and Kingdoms of God. In Japanese, however, there are various terms for negation. For the Japanese the Western notion of "being" is given another term, a term meaning "having at hand" or "manifest", something that "strikes the hand". Its opposite, nothingness, means something like "present, but not in hand." Thus, nothingness signifies a presence that is not anything identifiable, something there without being in any sense "manageable" like other things present to us in the world (thank you James Heisig for much of this) Nothingness - calligraphy For me, this seems to speak of a childlike acceptance, seeing everything as if for the first time without preconceptions, giving it no name, more experiencing each and every thing, maybe as if back in Eden before the naming of anything. And the end of all our exploring will be to "arrive where we started and know the place for the first time." A kind of "unknowing." Related Quotes:- "O happy fault that merited such and so great a Redeemer" (The "O Felix Culpa" of the Catholic Church) "One must have the mind of winter To regard the frost and the boughs Of the pine-trees crusted with snow; And have been cold a long time To behold the junipers shagged with ice, The spruces rough in the distant glitter Of the January sun; and not to think Of any misery in the sound of the wind, In the sound of a few leaves, Which is the sound of the land Full of the same wind That is blowing in the same bare place For the listener, who listens in the snow, And, nothing himself, beholds Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is" ("The Snow Man", Wallace Stevens) "Ride your horse along the edge of the sword Hide yourself in the middle of the flames Blossoms of the fruit tree will bloom in the fire The sun rises in the evening" (Zen Saying - quoted by Thomas Merton in his book "Zen and the Birds of Appetite") "The birds don't know they have names" (From the Journals of Thomas Merton)

United States 2.55K United Kingdom 2.19K Russia 519 Germany 430 Belgium 149 China 143 Ukraine 135 Unknown Region 128 Finland 127 France 85 Canada 75 Turkmenistan 74 Brazil 43 Spain 38 Thailand 35 Ireland 33 South Korea 29 Other 801 The above is from Google Statistics, giving "hits" on my Blog, "Dookie's Place: Ramblings of a Pure Land Buddhist." Almost 19,000 hits now since I began my rambles in 2016, but some seem to be by artificial bots based in Hong Kong or Singapore. Not sure, I've tried to look this up but the information is very patchy and contradictory. I find writing the Blog therapeutic just in and of itself, but it does provide some sort of pleasure and reward to think that just some place, somewhere, another human being is reading it. So, cheers from Greggs. No one has yet asked me to move along so first impressions are good. May true Dharma continue. No blame. Be kind. Love everything.

What narrative would Romans want to promote to conform to their perception at that time? They maintained dominance/ wealth through fear and control. A man taught them they did not have to operate out of fear, toiling and paying taxes, living in poverty. Instead, he taught they could act out of love of self, others and (what is called) God, and that God is love. He had gathered an immense following. Jesus very clearly said we are the same as him, equally loved, equally capable of performing (what is called) miracles. However, he was not found in his tomb and was seen alive after death. Today, there are tens of thousands of (what are called) near death experiences. There are accounts of brain tumors disappearing. People have been clinically dead, no pulse, and began to breath again. Don Piper was beyond recognition in a body bag, for 90 minutes (medically documented). They talk about what they saw/ felt, where they were during that period of zero brain activity. I was in ICU after Dr. punctured my colon. I saw a flat line on a monitor begin to show brain wave activity, among other impossibilities. There is no medical team or pharmaceutical company who will study these outliers, p values, anomalies, "miracles." These entities are paid through medical cures and procedures. What financial benefit would that bring them? Likewise with controlled news media. Headlines are fear based. You won't see these miraculous events discussed, studied, marveled at because they must remain in the category of 'fringe,' with no scientific credibility, no potential for regulation or financial gain. Back to Jesus. Roman authorities had a choice. Given that they had to maintain control (what they called the peace), and collect the wealth... They could pursue leads, interrogate Jesus' associates who saw him post death, find him and recreate the immense unrest, various groups fighting each other in the streets, attempt to crucify him again. This would mean acknowledgement that he came back to life, superceding their narrative of control and fear. It would mean dealing with yet another account of his miracles. They could attempt to find and kill him quietly, but being capable of miracles, what could he do to them? Worse, what if he could teach the masses these things? But they could perpetuate the narrative that we are separate, born of man, that Jesus was not like us, and therefore not capable of miracles. They could say God's one and only son was killed, and came in the form of an apparition to say "All is Well." You can avoid this by remaining under Roman rule (what they said was also God's rule). This narrative keeps order, shows us our place in group's hierarchy, satisfying Romans while acknowledging Jesus' specialness for Jews. So many groups were in opposition at Jesus' trial. Pilate did not want blood on his hands. He said his role was keeping peace. So Roman soldiers went before the masses, and said - He is a law breaker by advocating not paying taxes, claiming to be the son of God, healing on the Sabbath, claiming he could level and raise the temple in 3 days. So they go before his supporters and say..if you support him, you oppose the law. Law says we crucify. Who among you and your families will stand here with him and die for these beliefs? None were brave enough to stand with him, surround him, protect him. They feared death, torture, etc. of their friends, family, children. In other words... Regardless of Jesus' knowledge that God = love, love has immense power especially in large numbers, and that you can choose this and conquer man's fear through this, even perform miracles in choosing this way...they still chose fear. Even after his repeated demonstration of miracles, his most true friends, family, supporters did not translate this into reality. The takeaway is that we still have a choice. What would have happened if they had chosen to believe him? Rather than fist fighting, arguing, crying, placing trust on fear...could they have trusted Love/ God? Would they all have been murdered? And then was it possible that act by the masses would have spared them through a powerful, otherworldly energetic force? A miracle that would spare 475 more years of fearful Roman oppression/ control? And if you feel the story was all made up, are we nonetheless capable of understanding the difference - between trust in mankind's global illusion of fear and trust in God as an infinite power/ energy of unified Love? There is a forever connection between humankind, this immense energy of love called God, and our reality. Physics is beginning to get it. When you place your trust in this energy/ force/ God, it can then place trust in you. This shared trust then works to shape reality. This is what is meant by God working through you. You also have discernment that prevents you from running alone, headlong into a clearly dangerous situation. The individual cannot save a nation. The polpulace, placing its trust on God energy/ love, acts together creating powerful combined energies/ light/ forces unseen to most, and the people void of that light/ energy/ force simply don't allow functioning of their system. If your brain cells did not act together, lacking neurons to fire the reaction, they would not communicate and not serve the whole. The brain would become inactive, and that cellular separation causes failure of the entire system. In physical reality for example, N. Korea. That system is failing steadily since 1953. Fear, isolation, oppression, separation is causing unintegrated parts to wither in place. The population is moving into starvation and disease. Currently most of the military has worms/ parasites, and is rapidly encroaching upon the capital. It is possible to not adhere to fear. It is possible to envision a world as one nation in connection, acting in one truth, while respecting each other's unique perspectives. All nations now are capable of destroying the others. Fear keeps eyes on the buttons. It is our house and we are all brothers. We do not have the authority to decide who dies and lives. Our souls continue; energy cannot be destroyed, it just attracts to like energy and continues.

Hi, as most religion is little more than programming, your hopes might well be realised. 😀

Just thinking lately of another song, "The One I Love" by David Gray. I seem to remember mentioning it before somewhere, but at my age the memory is sometimes not what it used to be - some say it is the first thing to go, for me it is the second. I'm trying to learn it on my guitar, simple chords, quite easy, and I will add to my repertoire of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and "The Wheels On the Bus". I first heard the song when on the night shift at Wilko's, when I was a Stock Replenishment Executive (AKA Shelf Filler) They played a tape each night and we all had our favorites. We all joined in with "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place" and "Do You Wanna Be In My Gang" (don't mention the name of the artist Pike!) We all dreaded the Christmas tape, which being in the retail trade, would start early November, two months after the first Xmas stock came in. But I'm waffling again, in McDonald's with my coffee. But yes, "The One I Love", which I liked, and not listening intently to the lyrics - concentrating instead on making sure the AnuSol was placed on the correct shelf and aisle - took to be a simple "boy meets girl" love song. "You're the One I Love" yeah, yeah, yeah. Then some of the lyrics started to penetrate my mind/heart, words about bullets whispering through the grass, and tracers in the sky, of blood leaking out. So I looked up the lyrics, and its about a guy breathing his last on some battlefield (take your pick, there's plenty to choose from) and with his dying breath his vision is not of heavens or hells, but of his first dance with his loved one, holding hands on the old dance floor. Or maybe his last dance. Gut wrenching, and now two weeks into kicking my anti-depressants, tear jerking. But somehow, strangely, tears more of affirmation than despair. Anyway, here is the song.... Gonna close my eyes Girl and watch you go Running through this life, darling Like a field of snow As the tracer glides In its graceful arc Send a little prayer out to ya 'Cross the falling dark Tell the repo man And the stars above That you're the one I love, yeah Perfect summers night Not a wind that breathes Just the bullets whispering gentle 'Mongst the new green leaves There's things I might have said Only wish I could Now I'm leaking life faster Then I'm leaking blood Tell the repo man And the stars above That you're the one I love You're the one I love The one I love Yee hee, yee hee Don't see Elysium Don't see no fiery hell Just the lights up bright, baby In the bay hotel Next wave coming in Like an ocean roar Won't you take my hand darling On that old dance floor We can twist and shout Do the turtle dove And you're the one I love You're the one I love The one I love Yee hee, yee hee Not sure about the "yee hee, yee hee" bit, just might leave it out when I try entertaining the grandkids. Who is the "repo man"? I see it as that love cannot be repossessed. Love is the hidden ground in which we live and move and have our being. Someone once said that love is the reason that there is something rather than nothing, and another (Meister Eckhart) said that "love has no why". So tell the repo man to stuff it. Make of that what you will, meanwhile maybe think of the things "you might have said" to your own loved ones, and say them. Before you're shot down.

On and off, I have been getting back to graphic novels. They can be really good on Kindle, where you can just tap any picture twice and it then fills the whole screen. A side swipe will take you onto the next picture. And so on. Looking again at "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" where some guy, his car boot stacked with drugs and booze, roars off to pursue the American Dream! The graphics are superb, capturing the strident and nightmarish theme. Another I like is a Sherlock Holmes story, "The Sign of Four" which was ridiculously cheap on Kindle, about the price of a cup of coffee at McDonald's. Just to mention a quote found right at the beginning of the Fear & Loathing novel, buried in a picture of the "hero" who is draped in Old Glory..... "He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man" (Samuel Johnson) Which made me remember another quote, from Shakespeare:- "No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity..... . . . But I know none, and therefore am no beast." Time to go.