[On the Human Soul] While the Bible offers a clear distinction that the soul is separate from the body and discusses the idea of eternal life in a general context, it may come as a surprise that the Bible does not specifically indicate that the human soul is immortal. The postulation that we have an immortal soul is an extrapolation or ‘a reading between the lines ’ made by the Church Fathers. Even though the Bible itself cannot affirm the eternal soul, this has been the prevailing thought for billions of people.
When we look at the frailties of the human mind and the apparent disinterest by the multitude to do the very hard work of consistently thinking deeply to actively and carefully construct well-hewn models of reality, it is only a small wonder why major leaps in societal progress remain elusive. Rather, we are afflicted with our biases that lead naturally to the development and enduring sustainment of irrational beliefs. It is partly due to the profusion of differing irrational beliefs that it is so difficult to find common ground to confront major social issues which include how God’s existence and nature might be best represented.
When it comes to our embedded beliefs, our relative intolerance to ambiguous and contrary information leads us in many instances to ignore or less thoroughly process incoming data for its actual truth value. It is for this reason that society at large is so prone to religiosity because taking a skeptical stance is the difficult path; it is the path of greatest cognitive load. The cognitive load is high because we have to conscientiously work to continually question the information we receive and often re-program our subconscious for a subject matter that is both complex and abstract. More simply stated, it is cognitively easy for people to attribute perplexing phenomena to an abstract, all-powerful deity than it is to engage in a rigorous examination to discern potential explanatory data.
We also have to be particularly wary of imaginative thought processes for we can very easily create things and ideas in our minds that are outright impossible or highly improbable to be manifested in the world-universe which we then deceive ourselves into thinking that they are either certain or probable likelihoods. We often take several different pieces of information or instilled beliefs and loosely wed them together to bestow some greater meaning which falsely represents reality.
Nowhere in the definition of Religion is there a mandate for religions to self-challenge or revamp their theological positions based on new enlightenment. Rather, a religion adopts a central orthodoxy and perpetuates it.
All sufferers can find comfort in the solidarity of the Crucified; but only those who struggle against evil by following the example of the Crucified will discover Him at their side. To claim the comfort of the Crucified while rejecting His way is to advocate not only cheap grace but a deceitful ideology. Within the overarching theme of self-donation the theme of solidarity must be fully affirmed, for it underlines rightly the partiality of divine compassion towards the ‘harassed and helpless’.
Existence is One Self-Loving Event. This is who you are, this is what all is, we are this One-Self-Experiencing Reality that is Love itself. We are Love, We are this One that is Love itself.
The Krishna Consciousness has nothing to do with the protagonist Krishna of Mahabharata. However, here the term Krishna is only a symbolic representation of utter divinity in the psyche of the Hindus. The Krishna Consciousness is basically, a mental state of transcendence, which can similarly be called as “the Christ Consciousness” or “the Buddha Consciousness” or even “the Naskar Consciousness”. Buddha hailed it as Nirvana, while Christ, upon experiencing it, said to his pupils, “I and the Father are one.” Upon emerging from this extraordinary state of Absolute Oneness, the Self turns into Krishna – it turns into Christ – it turns into Buddha.