The Answer: Mystery, Myth and Knowing
By Hellspeak ~
I have no issue with what we can learn from myth. My issue is with the followers of fundamentalism, those people or groups, whom proselytize, project, and transfer upon us, not just their dogmas, beliefs, and values, but there, Knowing.
Mystery defined, solved and simplified. We Know God! Know mystery!, leaving nothing to wonder, to glimpse. It is the lack of an imagination. Mystery is mature, unknowable, transient, forcing you to grow and continually adapt...too evolve. Certainty is grasping, clinging, demanding, childlike, and "stuck". Can the certain not bear to learn to live with the existential angst of not knowing? Nor the anxiety that ultimately follows?
Ambiguity, and the learning to live with it, even enjoy it, is the road less travelled. It is not the wide easily chosen path that proclaims "The Answer" of the Christian. Seeking, searching in uncertainty and doubt is far more honest, but difficult, painful, and ultimately a lonely individual journey. But living without certainty leaves you open to infinite possibilities, only limited to the imagination. This openness is honest and humble, not arrogant and proud. It does not know.
It is not, giving everything over to Jesus and submitting, while admitting defeat, the casting off of an unwanted nature that you reject because you're infected with sin. It is avoiding growing up and "Owning your vulnerability and learning to function in the face of it". It is a life lived, without the help of Jesus that never truly satisfied, because it is not literally true. Just his myth and symbolic life exists, and it is cruel to believe otherwise, because it sets the bar too high. We cannot be a God, a Jesus. Christian's cannot fathom that we are already equipped by nature for the journey. You are already complete. Life is not to be lived by setting our difficulties and pain at the foot of his mythical symbolic cross to save us. It is not and never was his responsibility.
We are not entitled to anything in this life, not even happiness. We should all bear or own. But are we courageous enough, and willing to do the hard work of growing up? Adults, up to the challenge of accepting the reality of life for what is really is...painful and difficult. It is a life lived, without the tempting delusions and illusions of a set in stone, already made belief system. A belief system of literal cultural ideals and practices that are archaic, and should only be acknowledged as myth. Of a faith that promotes dependency, is submissive and self-defeating by nature instead of proactive and empowering. It is a faith and belief that is truly "stuck”, a belief that infantilizes its followers to be continuously cared for (forever) and saved. Saved from so much of themselves, during their lifetime, to continue on after death, and be transported to on to a strange, unknown, childlike, magical, bewildering non-native place in eternity. After time, what will be left of who they really are, or were? They will be ghost's to themselves and wear mask's designed and made by God/Jesus, for him to see what he has always wanted to see, reflection of his narcissistic self. Can we not see...are so blinded to the fact, that we created the God's? Should the God's do all of the work for us? No, our maturity/individualism, and self-respect we fought for and earned in this life will be...gone.
We are not entitled to anything in this life, not even happiness. We are especially not entitled to knowing God, knowing Mystery. Mystery is not a certainty, a promise, a thing to be grasped, gain favor from, objectified, there to save us from ourselves, nor its purpose for us to claim its essence exclusively (the Holy Spirit) as our own. This line of thinking mocks mystery and myth, and is a truly blasphemous and dangerous thing. If there was a God would he really want to know us?
Once you've given up the impossible task of defining and knowing mystery...you may know peace. Exercising your imagination...how you anticipate the world is the remedy for many of our ills. I know Christianity gives many hope in an uncertain world, but that's all it gives, hope. I choose to find my own answer, my own meaning. To stand in awe of mystery, and to what I believe to be sacred. To learn what I can from myth, and discard any notions of knowing much of anything with certainty. I wish to live honestly, and humbly, in the face of this massively complex and complicated life. I'm trying to learn to live with the ambiguity that comes with doubt, and the seemingly never ending anxiety is produces in me. It is very difficult and painful. But it is my symbolic cross to bear, my yearnings to grow up, to become who I want to be, and hopefully, I won't project my difficulties onto you. Find your own answer. You will be happier. This is your journey, your experiment. Jesus, through his mythical and symbolic life already lived his. If there really was a loving God wouldn't he want you to follow the path of your own jouney not mirror his son's instead?
Inspired by the writings of author James Hollis PhD, and the Bad Religion song "The Answer".
"Myth is the dramatization of conscious or unconscious values of a group or individual."~ James Hollis PHD.
Mystery defined, solved and simplified. We Know God! Know mystery!, leaving nothing to wonder, to glimpse. It is the lack of an imagination. Mystery is mature, unknowable, transient, forcing you to grow and continually adapt...too evolve. Certainty is grasping, clinging, demanding, childlike, and "stuck". Can the certain not bear to learn to live with the existential angst of not knowing? Nor the anxiety that ultimately follows?
Ambiguity, and the learning to live with it, even enjoy it, is the road less travelled. It is not the wide easily chosen path that proclaims "The Answer" of the Christian. Seeking, searching in uncertainty and doubt is far more honest, but difficult, painful, and ultimately a lonely individual journey. But living without certainty leaves you open to infinite possibilities, only limited to the imagination. This openness is honest and humble, not arrogant and proud. It does not know.
It is not, giving everything over to Jesus and submitting, while admitting defeat, the casting off of an unwanted nature that you reject because you're infected with sin. It is avoiding growing up and "Owning your vulnerability and learning to function in the face of it". It is a life lived, without the help of Jesus that never truly satisfied, because it is not literally true. Just his myth and symbolic life exists, and it is cruel to believe otherwise, because it sets the bar too high. We cannot be a God, a Jesus. Christian's cannot fathom that we are already equipped by nature for the journey. You are already complete. Life is not to be lived by setting our difficulties and pain at the foot of his mythical symbolic cross to save us. It is not and never was his responsibility.
We are not entitled to anything in this life, not even happiness. We should all bear or own. But are we courageous enough, and willing to do the hard work of growing up? Adults, up to the challenge of accepting the reality of life for what is really is...painful and difficult. It is a life lived, without the tempting delusions and illusions of a set in stone, already made belief system. A belief system of literal cultural ideals and practices that are archaic, and should only be acknowledged as myth. Of a faith that promotes dependency, is submissive and self-defeating by nature instead of proactive and empowering. It is a faith and belief that is truly "stuck”, a belief that infantilizes its followers to be continuously cared for (forever) and saved. Saved from so much of themselves, during their lifetime, to continue on after death, and be transported to on to a strange, unknown, childlike, magical, bewildering non-native place in eternity. After time, what will be left of who they really are, or were? They will be ghost's to themselves and wear mask's designed and made by God/Jesus, for him to see what he has always wanted to see, reflection of his narcissistic self. Can we not see...are so blinded to the fact, that we created the God's? Should the God's do all of the work for us? No, our maturity/individualism, and self-respect we fought for and earned in this life will be...gone.
We are not entitled to anything in this life, not even happiness. We are especially not entitled to knowing God, knowing Mystery. Mystery is not a certainty, a promise, a thing to be grasped, gain favor from, objectified, there to save us from ourselves, nor its purpose for us to claim its essence exclusively (the Holy Spirit) as our own. This line of thinking mocks mystery and myth, and is a truly blasphemous and dangerous thing. If there was a God would he really want to know us?
Once you've given up the impossible task of defining and knowing mystery...you may know peace. Exercising your imagination...how you anticipate the world is the remedy for many of our ills. I know Christianity gives many hope in an uncertain world, but that's all it gives, hope. I choose to find my own answer, my own meaning. To stand in awe of mystery, and to what I believe to be sacred. To learn what I can from myth, and discard any notions of knowing much of anything with certainty. I wish to live honestly, and humbly, in the face of this massively complex and complicated life. I'm trying to learn to live with the ambiguity that comes with doubt, and the seemingly never ending anxiety is produces in me. It is very difficult and painful. But it is my symbolic cross to bear, my yearnings to grow up, to become who I want to be, and hopefully, I won't project my difficulties onto you. Find your own answer. You will be happier. This is your journey, your experiment. Jesus, through his mythical and symbolic life already lived his. If there really was a loving God wouldn't he want you to follow the path of your own jouney not mirror his son's instead?
"Don't tell me about the answer because then another one will come along soon. I don't believe you have the answer; I've got ideas too! But if you've got enough naivety, and you've got conviction, then the answer is perfect for you.” Bad Religion.
Inspired by the writings of author James Hollis PhD, and the Bad Religion song "The Answer".
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