AMEN ^ ( 
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LOL, did you catch this Synch?!?!?:
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“The Dream State
It is the nature of all dreams that the characters therein are so
busy being . . . well, characters, that what lies outside the dream
state eludes them. In fact, the very idea that there is an outside
of their dream state, or that what they take to be real and meaningful is a dream state, is something that they would rarely even
consider—at least, not until their dream becomes a very bad
nightmare. And even then, very few will allow in the only thing
that can save themselves from endless sleep.
So many are tied and bound to themselves that they cannot
stop running from here to there and back again. Always on the
lookout for something more, different, or better, they cannot see that they are getting nowhere at all. And they are getting
absolutely nowhere faster and faster and with more and more
ingenuity all the time.
Who are they? I am afraid that they are us.
The greatest dream that we can have is to forget that we are
dreaming. Lost in our mind’s imagined world of judgments,
beliefs, and opinions, we are literally caught in a waking dream.
For some it is a nightmare, for others a temporary reprieve in
some imagined heaven. For most it is something in between.
But no matter what the current status of your dream may
be, it will all come to an end someday when you least expect it.
Suddenly the plot of your life will change or end altogether, and
you will find yourself disoriented and wondering what happened
and where it all went. Such abrupt changes in the direction and
texture of our lives is one of the few certainties we have in life,
and yet we keep believing that what we think about life has
anything whatsoever to do with what life actually is.
We are so busy and obsessed with our restless thinking about
everything and everyone that we have mistaken our thinking
about everything and everyone for everything and everyone. This
tendency to take our thoughts to be real is what keeps the dream
state intact and keeps us trapped within its domain of unconsciousness and strife.
To many people the very idea that what is is more real than
all of their beliefs and opinions about what is is hard to believe.
But that’s how it is when you are caught up in a dream. To you
your dream is real because all of your thoughts confirm that it
is real. But what is is more real than a thousand thoughts about
how things should be. Life will conform neither to the story you
tell yourself about it nor your interpretation of it. Believe a single
thought that runs contrary to the way things are or have been
and you suffer because of it. No exceptions!This does not mean that you should not have any thoughts
outside of what is. It only means that what is is the reality of now.
If you think that people should be nice to one another, then by
all means be nice. But when you project that belief onto the
people and the world around you as if it were an objective reality,
or worse still, as if it were their job to be nice to you, you put
yourself at odds with what is, and suffering will surely follow.
Now imagine a world of billions of people. Each one of them
has innumerable ideas, beliefs, and opinions that they believe
to be true. And each one of those billions of people has different ideas, beliefs, and opinions that they absolutely believe in.
They are all walking around seeing the same outside world, but
inwardly they each live in a different world, in a different waking dream.
Is it any wonder we have trouble getting along?
To add complexity to this volatile mixture is the fact that
there are also collective dream states where people of similar
personal dreams gather together to form collective dream states.
These are even harder spells to break out of, because collective
dream states exist within a consensus (or agreed-upon) reality. In
other words, it must be true because we all believe it to be true.
Thus is the state of humanity.
And the reality of universal being, your being, all being, remains exiled to the oblivion of unconsciousness.”
pages: 14 to 16
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Arrival
“a desire for more cows”
“You approach language like a Mathematician…
I watched you steer us around Communication traps that I didnt even know existed.”
“non-zero sum gain”
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“…which Love can use to reveal itself.”
Brilliant
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@_Barry. I love Bede Griffiths. As a young man in my 20’s, he was one of the ones who helped me bridge between the Christian traditions that I was raised in, and the eastern traditions. Another one was Thomas Merton.
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Big day for observation and practice on Friday.
Light a candle to celebrate the light that came into our world as Gautama Buddha, the Enlightened One. Friday, November 22, 2024 — the 22nd day of the ninth lunar month — marks Lhabab Duchen in Tibetan Buddhist tradition, the day we celebrate Buddha’s “descent to earth from Heaven.”
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The Merton Prayer
Thomas Merton
"My Lord God,
I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
nor do I really know myself,
and the fact that I think I am following your will
does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you
does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road,
though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always though
I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone."
“The Merton Prayer” from Thoughts in Solitude Copyright © 1956,
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Thank you for this, total Grand Slam!
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" Don’t be too proud of this technological terror you’ve constructed. The ability to destroy a planet, is insignificant next to the power of the Force."
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HARMONY OF RELIGIONS -Theresa Caputo
“…Find a cemetery that is accepting of different faiths.
I kinda view faith a little different. I am a practicing Catholic…”
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Grand Slam my friend!
Lots of wisdom in that vid
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reincarnation?
I do think it is possible to Both believe in Heaven and believe in reincarnation at the same time.
Master Holecek said the purest souls dont reincarnate, and the most evil souls go straight to hell for a very long time.
I dont think you have to become a Buddhist Master to stay in heaven, I think enlightened activity, like raising a family and being a good person can secure you a place in Gods immortal soul.
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Of course! Who knows? I favor the description of reality that the Buddha taught with the six realms of sentient existence and that cosmology, however I still have trouble matching my socks. 
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