Monday's MeditationMom Moment - Son Of God Or Prophet

Q: Christians believe that Jesus was the son of God, while Muslims believe he was a prophet like Mohammad. What do you think of this idea that he is the son of God - even the only son of God?

MM: Jesus himself said that we are all the children of God - just like him. Begotten means "by seed". It makes no sense to take this literally, unless you believe in aliens.

Spiritually understood, this "seed", "God's seed" is waiting to sprout within all of us. It is our longing for re-union. The longing that drives everything - all of material, physical life, and spiritual life alike. "Father" means our origin, our source which could just as easily be called "Mother", or the Infinite and Eternal. The trouble always arises when the material mind interprets spiritual teachings. That is why so many spiritual teachings used to be kept secret.

Monday's MeditationMom Moment - Do You Believe In God?

Q: MeditationMom - do you - or do you not - believe in God? Some of your writing seems atheist, and sometimes it seems that you do mention God a lot.

MM: Neither, and both. You'll have to practice your Buddhist non-dualistic thinking to be happy with this answer. My writings are confusing because I respond differently to individual people . All the people who write to me are truth seekers - the religious and atheists alike. The truth everyone is intuitively looking for is "beyond belief" - literally - and already belongs to everyone. As Jesus said: "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free." This freedom is all that matters.

Maybe I should ask you which God you are asking me about?



A joke on the subject: A tourist in an Irish bar asks his neighbor: "Are you a Catholic or a Protestant?" "Neither!" answers the Irish patron with some annoyance, and adds: "I am an Atheist."
After a pause the tourist asks: "Well, are you a Catholic Atheist or a Protestant Atheist?" to which the Irish man replies with a little more enthusiasm: "Actually, I am a Buddhist atheist."

God - to most people - believers and atheists alike - is an idea. Many different ideas actually, we
fight wars over. Everyone has a different idea about God - even the kind of God people don't believe in is fought over.

To others, God is a suspicion - as in "there must be something or someone greater than little old me "out there" running or overseeing things". Atheists are more mature, and brave enough to live in a chaotic and random universe. To them, God is simply a stupid, if not a dangerous and destructive idea. Most atheists just want people to stop killing each other in the name of God. Atheists though are blind too, for example, about how many people have been maimed and killed because of what they believe in - which is science.

To the devout God is a feeling - a very profound one, and anyone telling them "there is no God" is saying "you don't have that feeling". When, especially people who tell others to get in touch with their feelings, their emotions, their sexuality, as well as their "dark side", then tell those people that "their feeling" of God - their "being in touch" with the divine or the sacred in life - is not real - all hell breaks lose between these two groups.

Those who actually discover God, discover something far beyond thought or feeling, and beyond anything anyone could say anything about, and certainly something beyond belief. They usually stay silent on the subject. If they say anything they risk being misunderstood, getting crucified or stoned to death, and also risk starting yet another religion for humanity to fight over. In other words - when it comes to God or the divine - you cannot learn about it from anyone or any book, even though this can certainly be inspiring and give valuable guidance in the best of cases.

Ultimately - the whole subject of God is best avoided as it is a fight among the blind over something they are all speculating about. Believing is OK, and not believing is OK . Both can help, or be a hindrance, on the way to truth and freedom.

What is meant by God is equivalent to absolute, infinite and eternal truth, absolute, infinite and eternal freedom, love, compassion, wisdom, kindness, perfection, principle, all-one-ness that includes all opposites of good and evil, and all that is beyond all ideas. There is only one way to discover this, and that is with the deepest trust during meditation. This trust needs to be greater than the fear of death. The reason for that is that only with that, can one go beyond thought or feeling - beyond oneself - completely. "Oneself" is the blindness that prevents discovery.

When the Dalai Lama was asked what his religion is, he answered that his religion is Kindness. This is a highly scientific answer and demonstrates the insignificance of individual, personal, belief or non-belief in God, or any religious dogma.

Ramana Maharshi said it well: "No one doubts that he exists, though you may doubt the existence of God. If you find out the truth about yourself and discover your own source, this is all that is required."

In other words - God is a discovery - and unlike anything that anyone has ever believed, or not believed in.

Monday's MeditationMom Moment - Losing My Religion

Q: How can you be religious or spiritual without following a certain religion, teaching or moral code?

MM: By being yourself. And by trusting deeply.

Even if you are still driven by wrong motives - by being yourself and by paying very close attention you will learn and discover the truth. It is not a question of being moral or immoral, religious or non-religious, or anti-religion. It is a question of becoming more and more aware. More and more sensitive. At the highest level of sensitivity the final jump into oneness can happen.

There are many alternatives to religion in order to go beyond fear and desire . Fear and desire are at the root of all so-called evil that religions try to fight. The root of all fears and desires , in turn, is the idea that there is an "I". Realizing the illusion of this "I" simply takes great sensitivity and power of observation which can be gained through meditation, or as I said earlier - paying attention. Fundamentally meditation means paying utmost attention to the most subtle.

"There's Probably No God -

...Now Stop Worrying And Enjoy Your Life."

Very funny London Bus advertising by atheists to "counter" religious ads. It's entertaining living in free countries. Rich countries - who have money for such silly ad wars among the various proselytisers. Richard Dawkins - our most popular proselytiser for atheism, says he would have liked to have them drop the word "probably" even though during his satellite appearance on the Bill Maher Show he admitted a scientist always has to build in some iota of improbability, and therefor he could not say with 100% certainty that there is no God.

"Converting" to Atheism is mentioned in this video as well. How can one convert to a non-belief? You can only convert to a different belief as in "I believe there is no God". This takes as much faith as believing in God. Atheism is in fact trying to be a belief system like Creationism. Just the other extreme on the same continuum of ignorance or faith. Like Creationism pretends to be scientific, science professors like Richard Dawkins pretend to be experts on spiritual matters without ever having meditated to any degree that would make them anywhere near expert on the matter. The blind, being led by the blind with PhDs - who, of course, collect the money from their followers.

If it indeed said "There is no God..." on those buses, many Muslims would have been pleased in London, as this they could consider a truthful - if incomplete statement. Maybe not a bad start for the West. Just like any religiously raised teenager moves from childhood trust and belief through a predictable atheist phase before searching for the truth himself, maybe the Western population is ready for that stage of spiritual development. According to the Gospel of Judas, even Jesus laughed in dismay at the apostles' simplistic belief in a creator God that was not grounded in any of their own meditation experience, nor in any understanding of his teachings and the higher mysteries.

The search for what is, for a lack of a better word called "God", requires no less commitment, suffering, headaches, confusion, frustration, and work than the search for the Unified Theory in Physics. We keep looking - either until we find it, or as long as we're having fun searching. How silly would be an ad banner on a London bus trying to convince Physicists to go out and get some exercise instead of hovering over their desks 24/7 because "There probably is no Unifying Theory" and tell them to "stop worrying and enjoy their lives"?

Atheists assuming agnostics or the faithful don't enjoy their lives is a bit presumptuous and unscientific. In the advanced, religious ecstasy is far more pleasurable than any drug one could take. Atheist "ecstasy" always stays in the realm of the physical, material - sex, drugs, food, fame, power, math, music, architecture, etc. The hobbies of kings, not buddhas or prophets.

Considering the present worldwide crisis of having overspent on all of our enjoyments way beyond our means out of some sort of desperation for enjoyment (fueled by advertising) - maybe "enjoying ourselves" a little less is where the bliss is actually going to come from. Living like Kings pales in comparison to living like Buddhas, Christs, Prophets, Saints...But - it does not hurt to be king for a while - guilt-free - to figure that out before moving on. So Atheism has its purpose. There is no question that the religions' preachings against natural and simple pleasures has pushed people into the insane seeking of extreme and perverted pleasures.

As I mentioned in an earlier post - "the infinitely small iota of probability" is where Atheists and Believers need to meet. The word "probably" is the most important word in this ad campaign and makes a great mantra for meditation. A very enjoyable word which creates humility in both science and religion. Let's all indeed enjoy our short and precious lives, and allow others to do the same. It does not take belief in or against God to do so.

Intellectual Suicide

In response to Monday's Post -

Q: Excuse my ignorance but this sounds an awful lot like intellectual suicide.

MM: Better than actual suicide - as so often the case with philosophers and genius intellectuals, no?

But, to address your concern more directly. Slowing, calming, and transcending the mind is not supposed to be an intellectual, or intelligence suicide. It is getting yourself completely out of the way and into a space of infinite possibility and uncertainty which means facing life and yourself as it truly is, rather than the way we construct it with our minds.

No matter the level of sophistication by the most intelligent philosopher or intellectual...it can never be defined. As it says in the Tao...the Tao that can be named is not the Tao. A wide open mind - to all possibilities in utter uncertainty - is a completely free, still mind. At that point of no thought - it is like a Ferrari in neutral - or a VW in neutral - your intelligence level does not matter. That is why Alexander the Great can learn from a beggar in the street. This kind of mind is simply awake. Awake has nothing to do with logic or intellect. That is why athletes soldiers, and criminals are such great candidates for meditation. Their life already depends on being awake.

Faith, though, is a sort of intellectual suicide, where the mind is still involved, but disregards logic. Faith realizes the truth can't be figured out, so it just makes up something that works. But even faith is still a mind "in gear".

The intellect tries to figure out the truth, which is impossible. It can easily drive the thinker to insanity and suicide unless a master is around. Or, the intellectual will settle for a "conclusion" and stay there proclaiming it truth, at which point it is nothing but faith in disguise and a new "ism". Atheism is a perfect example.

Meditation is a way to come across the truth by happenstance if you're lucky and if you can handle it. Not everyone is ready to face infinite uncertainty, infinite possibility, and eternal not-knowing, and the surrender this entails, even though it means liberation. That is why meditation is so difficult to begin with; and faith or philosophy so much more popular, but then fails us.

Jesus said: "You shall know the truth and it shall set you free." He didn't say: "Don't worry, kids - you'll figure it out". It is not a question of figuring it out, it is a question of being able to face it - this already existing truth within all of us. Love and trust are essential. Most people need Jesus, God, Buddha, Mohammad, Saints, Santa Clause, pink Unicorns, or a puppy in order to relate this love and trust to someone or something - once again a handicap we have because of our logical minds. Even atheists worship Richard Dawkins, for example, and Buddhists the Dalai Lama. But - love and trust can also be cultivated - without any reference point, which is the point of meditation. When this love and trust reaches infinite patience, we're home, and set free.

So - 40 days in the desert - regularly - for everyone ;)

Monday's MeditationMom's Moment - Buddhism and Atheism 12/22/08

Q: Is it possible to be an atheist and a Buddhist?

MM: In the beginning, yes.

But eventually, Buddhism and meditation will destroy atheism - and all other "isms" - even Buddhism - in ones mind. The goal of Buddhism and meditation is an empty, open "beginner's mind" of "don't know" which is incompatible with any conviction about God's existence or non-existence, or any other conviction about anything else.

Total Uncertainty

Richard Dawkins admitted on his holiday season book tour, that, as a scientist he cannot say with 100% certainty that there is no God, any more than he could say with absolute certainty that there are no pink unicorns. A scientist never says "never". It has been proven foolish to do so. In a universe of 100 billion galaxies, and the possibility of infinite parallel universes in addition to ours, what could we possibly say "does not" exist. Most likely anything we can think of - God, the devil, or pink unicorns - if we think it, we may have created it. Maybe we should watch our thoughts. Dawkins settled for 99.99% certainty, that there is no God, and no pink unicorns. Luckily there are enough little believers in pink unicorns.

Likewise - most religious people - have the opposite problem. They struggle with doubt about God, especially when they see their loved ones go through great suffering. So we could say that religious people also are only 99.99% sure, that there is a God.

Great suffering often turns the religious against God. Suffering also, just as often, turns devoted atheists towards God - even if it is just a defiant outburst, or demand to prove his existence. So that 0.01% is a powerful thing.

The very nature of suffering is that it takes away our certainty - as such it has its place in the universe and serves our ultimate liberation. Religious people say to themselves :"God knows best." - and Atheist say: "Nothing matters." Both religion and science with great teachings try, and succeed, in relieving our uncertainty - even though it is the very thing that can set us free.

It is the 0.01% that explains everything. As a matter of fact - this level of certainty about anything is still far, far too much for enlightenment or the Big Bang. Both can only happen at a point of total and absolute uncertainty! So the religious as well as the atheists - both with their 99.99% certainty - are impossibly far from the goal.

Religious people sometimes fare better because the very thing they are being made fun of - the ability to go beyond reason - makes them able to trust. Trust comes from the heart.

The atheist only "trusts" his intellect which is such a small thing and under ones own control - it can hardly be called trust. It's like a man locked up in his own house with iron gates, body guards and 24/7 alarm systems in place, a gun in his pocket accompanied by two Dobermans, telling people he feels perfectly safe. Unfortunately, many religious people are not much better, also just using their intellect - and badly. No wonder these two sides have to battle it out.

Peace is in absolute uncertainty. When in doubt about God's existence or non-existence - just open or close your eyes, and discover what is beyond doubt. It is always there.

Monday's MeditationMom's Moment - Mary, Atheists And The Religious - 12/8/08

Q: Do you ever see peace among all the religions?

MM: Yes, I do. It already exists. In many parts of the world, people share deep, lifelong friendships, love, and peace with people of other faiths. It drives fundamentalists crazy. We should understand that whatever divides us is misunderstanding - never superior understanding. Even the atheist with his superior scientific mind suffers from misunderstanding. But - misunderstanding is human, and disagreement is human. And feeling superior - oh, so human! Only in death, or in enlightenment - whatever comes first - do we wake up to the truth and laugh at all our notions, wrong conclusions, and interpretations - atheists as well as the religious.

Mary came to my mind the other day, in regards to peace among the religions. Here is a Jewish woman and Jesus' first teacher; who is mysteriously impregnated by someone other than her husband - a big problem in all religions when a woman "does that" - although strangly enough, the way most prophets and sons of God seem to be conceived ; who has to watch her son being crucified - far more suffering than being crucified if you are that person's mother; and whose statue is the only statue of all the statues of saints, gods and prophets (which were all stored in the Ka'ba in Mecca), that Muhammad did not destroy in 630 C.E. upon entering Mecca. Muhammad's love for Mary was very, very deep.

She could have easily been enlightened herself. The depth of her joy, her suffering and her transcendence is equal if not deeper than that of all the prophets' or apostles, yet she remained silent.

In her silence, compassion, patience, humility and example, she could unite all major faiths in the world - unless! - we start arguing about her pregnancy. That, of course, would instantly be a problem. Was she impregnated - by man, by holy ghost, or by alien - three new religions right there, over which we could keep killing each other. That would have to be the first commandment of our new world religion: "Thou shall never discuss, contemplate, speculate, or claim knowledge about Mary's pregnancy, her virginity or her sex life (Jesus had many brothers) - at all- ever!"

Even atheists could come on board. Just as a mother, just as a human being, who had to transcend human suffering, who was an expression of love, humility, compassion and trust - she could unite all of us in love. Once love and peace is found, God is found also. God is never a question of which religion, non-religion, teacher or scientist one follows - only a question of how deep one's love, one's trust, one's compassion, and one's peace is. Then God finds us. Atheists and believers alike.

Michelangelo's Pieta, St Peter's Basilica, Vatican, Rome
© Pictures of Rome courtesy of Rome.info

Santa and Atheists

I do love atheists for their intelligence and scientific way of thinking - but frankly they do not know entirely what they are talking about for one simple reason - they generally do not meditate a great deal. The same can be said about many religious people. Pursuit of truth without thousands of hours in silence is like the pursuit of physics without thousands of experiments, or the discipline of endless hours of doing the math.

Do atheists offer a scientific explanation or theory about how much better off we actually would be without the major world religions - most of which teach compassion and kindness? That would be more interesting and convincing than ridiculing organizations that have managed to survive thousands of years and have offered relief to millions of suffering people. If all religions united around the fundamentals of compassion it would be better than getting rid of them altogether, in favor or what? Governments? Universities? It would be like getting rid of science because of all the deaths from car crashes, atom bombs, medicines, guns, etc. Science has killed as many people as all the religions put together, and may actually be in the process of destroying life for good on our planet.

It would be hard to imagine that famous atheists like Dawkins do not understand that all so-called religious wars are nothing but power struggles for resources with the excuse of religion. If we remove religion - other excuses for violence will arise, so what would be the point? It would be throwing out the baby with the bathwater. We should not do that to religion or science. Do both religion and science need to wake up in a rather big way? Yes! And let not money and power be their motives!

A favorite argument of atheists is that one cannot prove the non-existence of a pink elephant in the sky who runs the Universe. And it is true. Atheists cannot disprove God's existence, nor can anyone else prove God's existence - scientifically. But, that is the whole point! Scientific proof only applies to the material world. Anything that is of the non-material world is up for grabs. We are allowed to invent anything - "dinglehoppers", pink elephants, and God - whatever makes us better people, or life more enjoyable. Our devotion and worship of what we imagine defines us and leads us beyond the material. It is with God in mind that some of the greatest music in the world was composed, for example. Far more fascinating and limitless than the material world. Once we venture into the non-material world we will eventually stumble upon the truth which is far beyond our imagination. This is unlikely if we stay focused only on the material world, no matter how Bison-Higgs-like.

The reason for this post is, that my nine-year-old son who "knows" there is no Santa Claus, refuses to give up the fantasy and I am expected to play along like a mother should to the point of providing excellent details about the Northpole, present delivery, rules of goodness that guarantee lots of gifts, etc. My inner atheists and scientist, including my traumatized self of having been "lied to" as a child, have a lot of resistance to this, but as I was triumphantly told by my Jedi warrior two nights ago: "Nobody can prove to me that Santa does not exist! You can't prove ANYTHING that doesn't exist, that is doesn't exist!" A child's mind is naturally Buddhist, non-dualistic and free.

So why not create a magical world of love and surprises - like my mother did for me. Fantasy Christmas is much more fun than secular, scientific Christmas. Atheists do not know the joy and pleasure serious religious people - those who simply have infinite trust and faith like children, or those who do their own endless experiments meditating - indulge in. Science is almost as much fun, but not quite. Scientists and religious people who have it right have a twinkle in their eyes. All the others look miserable and grumpy in their struggle for fame and power.

When I could only find this "dinglehopper" clip in Norwegian I realized - even language is a crazy invention of the imagination. One man's religion makes no sense to another - neither does one man's language make any sense to another. As Ramana Maharshi says: "We need to discover our own true source. That is all that is required." We can start with a smile. Maybe while sitting in silence.