An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth?
"TV or Not TV, - that is the question; whether tis nobler to listen to the lies and promises of outrageous pitchmen or to slit your throat on an electroplated stainless steel blade!"
Our neighbors and children are starving and homeless while we spend billions, even trillions of dollars per year to kill and prepare to kill, people with fears, cares and interests no different from our own. How far does our fear of each other take us?
How long before we can admit to simple paranoia? The real fear about war is not what “The Enemy” can or will do to our bodies and homes, but what they might do to our minds - that a conquering foe will subjugate us and within a generation or two, or a decade or two, or a year or two, or even within a month or a week or a day or an hour or two change our minds so that we become slaves and not self determining individuals.
Yet we are in bondage now! Right here - right now.
We've been programmed to be the slaves of our own elected paranoid demagoguery! They have sold us on fear - fear of ourselves and of each other. Our weakness is not one of military might, but of mental, moral and spiritual strength.
The real wars are fought on the inside of the body, not on the outside. The people of our world are playing a huge and cruel joke on themselves - causing pain and promoting fear in their communities, nations and within themselves as individuals.
The problem is so simple - the evidence so complex. We who consider ourselves so sophisticated, not only cannot see it ourselves, we have difficulty being self - honest enough to accept it when pointed out to us.
We are a greedy, selfish and warmongering world; warring and preparing for war, killing and being killed, suffering and causing suffering, yet we deny responsibility for our thoughts and behavior. Regardless of what most religions say about themselves, contemporary practices rarely reflect the basic tenets of the purported founder.
The truths spoken by Jesus have been taught by others both before and since his time and we might accept the truths taught by any teacher of rightness such as Lao Tze, Buddha, Mohammed, Gandhi, Krishna or others which seem to sit on a common foundation - followed by wild deviations via religious successors.
Truth is equal to all persons and applications and does not depend on any particular consideration of the teacher's purported divinity or lack thereof.
The keys to all happiness and success are declared in the one simple teaching to: Love God who gave you life and love your neighbor as yourself.
This love and respect for yourself and all creation was declared by Jesus to be the sum total of all the messages of all the prophets since forever and the totality of His message and religion as well.
And we see that most major religions and philosophic movements share that same foundational principle in close similarity if not exactness.
Think of all those who claim to be believers in the “Good Book” who pass by our children and neighbors in need while they glut themselves on abject materialism and self gratification.
Think of the difference it would make instead of spending billions per day preparing to kill our neighbor, we instead spent the same billions on teaching peace and brotherhood and practicing what we preach.
Where do we love our neighbor except at the end of a gun?
We are a world at war with ourselves. We are a world of haters and killers and self-serving opportunists. As Pogo so aptly put it, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”
Only by changing Us can we save Us.
You have the responsibility to serve yourself and your fellowmen by openly practicing principles of peace. Now is the time for each and every one of you to decide whether you are going to be the problem; or you are going to be the solution.
If you are not behaving true to your principals, you are lying to yourself and everyone around you. You cannot give what you do not possess. If all you feel is fear and distrust and envy, you get a world like we have today.
If you don't soon change direction, you are liable to end up where you are headed.
Change yourself, change your space, change your world.
Only if you are unafraid of truth will you find it.
Believe in yourself - Be true to yourself.
You cannot give what you have not got.
All who seek - find.
UBU Respect/Honor/Integrity/Love
Rev. Doc Lowrey
"TV or Not TV, - that is the question; whether tis nobler to listen to the lies and promises of outrageous pitchmen or to slit your throat on an electroplated stainless steel blade!"
Our neighbors and children are starving and homeless while we spend billions, even trillions of dollars per year to kill and prepare to kill, people with fears, cares and interests no different from our own. How far does our fear of each other take us?
How long before we can admit to simple paranoia? The real fear about war is not what “The Enemy” can or will do to our bodies and homes, but what they might do to our minds - that a conquering foe will subjugate us and within a generation or two, or a decade or two, or a year or two, or even within a month or a week or a day or an hour or two change our minds so that we become slaves and not self determining individuals.
Yet we are in bondage now! Right here - right now.
We've been programmed to be the slaves of our own elected paranoid demagoguery! They have sold us on fear - fear of ourselves and of each other. Our weakness is not one of military might, but of mental, moral and spiritual strength.
The real wars are fought on the inside of the body, not on the outside. The people of our world are playing a huge and cruel joke on themselves - causing pain and promoting fear in their communities, nations and within themselves as individuals.
The problem is so simple - the evidence so complex. We who consider ourselves so sophisticated, not only cannot see it ourselves, we have difficulty being self - honest enough to accept it when pointed out to us.
We are a greedy, selfish and warmongering world; warring and preparing for war, killing and being killed, suffering and causing suffering, yet we deny responsibility for our thoughts and behavior. Regardless of what most religions say about themselves, contemporary practices rarely reflect the basic tenets of the purported founder.
The truths spoken by Jesus have been taught by others both before and since his time and we might accept the truths taught by any teacher of rightness such as Lao Tze, Buddha, Mohammed, Gandhi, Krishna or others which seem to sit on a common foundation - followed by wild deviations via religious successors.
Truth is equal to all persons and applications and does not depend on any particular consideration of the teacher's purported divinity or lack thereof.
The keys to all happiness and success are declared in the one simple teaching to: Love God who gave you life and love your neighbor as yourself.
This love and respect for yourself and all creation was declared by Jesus to be the sum total of all the messages of all the prophets since forever and the totality of His message and religion as well.
And we see that most major religions and philosophic movements share that same foundational principle in close similarity if not exactness.
Think of all those who claim to be believers in the “Good Book” who pass by our children and neighbors in need while they glut themselves on abject materialism and self gratification.
Think of the difference it would make instead of spending billions per day preparing to kill our neighbor, we instead spent the same billions on teaching peace and brotherhood and practicing what we preach.
Where do we love our neighbor except at the end of a gun?
We are a world at war with ourselves. We are a world of haters and killers and self-serving opportunists. As Pogo so aptly put it, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”
Only by changing Us can we save Us.
You have the responsibility to serve yourself and your fellowmen by openly practicing principles of peace. Now is the time for each and every one of you to decide whether you are going to be the problem; or you are going to be the solution.
If you are not behaving true to your principals, you are lying to yourself and everyone around you. You cannot give what you do not possess. If all you feel is fear and distrust and envy, you get a world like we have today.
If you don't soon change direction, you are liable to end up where you are headed.
Change yourself, change your space, change your world.
Only if you are unafraid of truth will you find it.
Believe in yourself - Be true to yourself.
You cannot give what you have not got.
All who seek - find.
UBU Respect/Honor/Integrity/Love
Rev. Doc Lowrey