Do you believe in God and why

[ravip]

2 hours ago, Tippaporn said:

The early bird gets the worm. 

...the early worm gets eaten by the bird.

So been early is good for the bird, but fatal for the worm.

[ravip]

13 hours ago, Sunmaster said:

So you are saying you don't trust what comes from your inside? Do you only trust what comes from the outside? 

 

What do you think the inner Self is?

So you are saying you don't trust what comes from your inside?

Depends - Pain, happiness, sadness, smell, taste etc are ok.

 

Do you only trust what comes from the outside?

Whats proven, yes.

 

What do you think the inner Self is?

Imagination

[Sunmaster]

10 minutes ago, ravip said:

So you are saying you don't trust what comes from your inside?

Depends - Pain, happiness, sadness, smell, taste etc are ok.

 

Do you only trust what comes from the outside?

Whats proven, yes.

 

What do you think the inner Self is?

Imagination

Ok
Another question...
What or who do you think you were, BEFORE you constructed the ego. 
If the ego is an accumulation of "add-ons" and a tool to interact with the outside world, what do you think was there before it developed? Tabula Rasa?

[ravip]

21 minutes ago, Sunmaster said:

Ok
Another question...
What or who do you think you were, BEFORE you constructed the ego. 
If the ego is an accumulation of "add-ons" and a tool to interact with the outside world, what do you think was there before it developed? Tabula Rasa?

No, I never 'constructed an ego' as I have no need for one!

Yes, every being is born as a Tabula Rasa.

We pickup the thrash on the way...

[Sunmaster]

1 minute ago, ravip said:

No, I never 'constructed an ego' as I have no need for one!

Yes, every being is born as a Tabula Rasa.

We pickup the thrash on the way...

You don't have an ego??
Who is typing this? Are you an online bot?? ????

 

[Hummin]

4 hours ago, Tippaporn said:

It's not the only question.  There's another question.  Given the assumption that Karma does exist then how does it work?  You may find 10 different answers out of 10 different people.

 

Karma is existence if you believe in Karma, and even you do not believe or say you dont believe,  your subconscious works in mysterious ways, and it might be or feel real. 

 

There is so many ways our brain can take us for a ride if we want to believe, or someone manage to plant a seed to lead you on to their path of thinking or living.

 

 

[Sunmaster]

6 minutes ago, ravip said:

Yes, every being is born as a Tabula Rasa.

Carl Gustaf Jung, among others, would disagree...

 

https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1112&context=edpsychpapers

[ravip]

6 hours ago, Sunmaster said:

You don't have an ego??
Who is typing this? Are you an online bot?? ????

 

Ooooops!

I meant to say that I am not egotistical.

[ravip]

5 hours ago, Sunmaster said:

Carl Gustaf Jung, among others, would disagree...

 

https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1112&context=edpsychpapers

Of course. Everyone has the freedom to believe in anything they want to. Unfortunately, upto now, no one has proved for sure of any 'super being', a creator, etc.

Although there are many 'versions' all are a sort of faith - hence why I often mention amulets - believe in one hard enough, maybe it works.

[save the frogs]

9 hours ago, Sunmaster said:

I'm waiting for @save the frogs to explain it to me. He seems to have a clear (non mumbo jumbo) idea. 

Forget the comment about 8 year olds.

Karma may be complex / nuanced ... and different people may interpret it differently.

A few people on here have already offered up some good definitions.

Do we need to turn this into a competition of definitions?

I just didn't like Tippaporn's comments where he dismissed the concept entirely with what to me appears to be mumbo jumbo.

As long as people are discussing it, it's good.

Tippaporn completely dismissed it. I think it's better if people discuss it. 

 

Sorry, I'm taking a break from this thread.

I might check in once a week or so.

The comments and discussions here are interesting, but I don't have time to respond.

 

[Hummin]

7 minutes ago, save the frogs said:

Forget the comment about 8 year olds.

Karma may be complex / nuanced ... and different people may interpret it differently.

A few people on here have already offered up some good definitions.

Do we need to turn this into a competition of definitions?

I just didn't like Tippaporn's comments where he dismissed the concept entirely with what to me appears to be mumbo jumbo.

As long as people are discussing it, it's good.

Tippaporn completely dismissed it. I think it's better if people discuss it. 

 

Sorry, I'm taking a break from this thread.

I might check in once a week or so.

The comments and discussions here are interesting, but I don't have time to respond.

 

It is what you want it to be, which seems to sums it up for most in here who have an opinion. 

[Sunmaster]

1 hour ago, ravip said:

Of course. Everyone has the freedom to believe in anything they want to. Unfortunately, upto now, no one has proved for sure of any 'super being', a creator, etc.

Although there are many 'versions' all are a sort of faith - hence why I often mention amulets - believe in one hard enough, maybe it works.

You are jumping too far, I think.

I didn't ask about a Super Being or Creator and I certainly never asked anyone to just have faith. On the contrary. From the very beginning of this thread (yes, I went back to check), my main argument with both skeptics and believers, was that the only way to know if we are more than a flesh machine, is through direct experience. 

Only direct experience can offer you proof of the existence of that something else. 

Only direct experience can eliminate the need for faith.

Only direct experience has the power of lasting transformation.

 

I don't believe what I believe because I have faith. That wouldn't be enough for me. I need to grab the bull by the horns, look the tiger in the eyes, I need action, I need verification. I need to know who or what was (and is) there before the ego was constructed. 

This is where I believe all the answers lie and I will hold to this until I die.

 

This is my path. I don't have the arrogance to say that it should be everyone's path, because it isn't. Yet, I think that the endpoint is the same for everyone. 

Edited March 8, 2023 by Sunmaster

[Sunmaster]

29 minutes ago, save the frogs said:

Forget the comment about 8 year olds.

Karma may be complex / nuanced ... and different people may interpret it differently.

A few people on here have already offered up some good definitions.

Do we need to turn this into a competition of definitions?

I just didn't like Tippaporn's comments where he dismissed the concept entirely with what to me appears to be mumbo jumbo.

As long as people are discussing it, it's good.

Tippaporn completely dismissed it. I think it's better if people discuss it. 

 

Sorry, I'm taking a break from this thread.

I might check in once a week or so.

The comments and discussions here are interesting, but I don't have time to respond.

 

I understand. 

And you must also understand that when I read stuff like that, coupled with "mumbo jumbo" (a term I very much dislike), my BS alarm bells go in overdrive. ????

Talk to you soon.

 

[thaibeachlovers]

On 3/7/2023 at 9:24 PM, Tippaporn said:

Of course, God isn't our savior as there is nothing to save anyone from.  Christianity doesn't know that, though.

Religions IMO depend on having people believe that they need saving, and they need the men in funny hats to save them by interceding with god, for a price.

[thaibeachlovers]

On 3/7/2023 at 11:48 PM, save the frogs said:

it is. it's both. 

If that's true, why are my "rewards" so minor and my "punishments" so major?

It's not like I'm an evil person, though I make mistakes, as do everyone.

[thaibeachlovers]

On 3/8/2023 at 12:02 AM, Tippaporn said:

"Now: In the beginning, there was not God the Father, Allah, Zoroaster, Zeus, or Buddha.1

In the beginning there was instead, once more, a divine psychological gestalt—and by that I mean a being whose reality escapes the definition of the word “being,” since it is the source from which all being emerges.

Had you, or seth stopped there I'd agree, but driving full tilt into the weeds loses me.

 

The commonly accepted meaning of "beginning" is satisfactory to me. Before the beginning there was nothing, and then after the beginning there was the universe to be. I don't need more than that.

[thaibeachlovers]

11 hours ago, Sunmaster said:

I don't believe what I believe because I have faith. That wouldn't be enough for me. I need to grab the bull by the horns, look the tiger in the eyes, I need action, I need verification. I need to know who or what was (and is) there before the ego was constructed. 

I am somewhat similar, though I think we come at it from different directions.

I believe in a creator, because I see nature and I refuse to believe that it just happened from nothingness, by some cosmic accident.

We know the stars were born, and will end when their fuel runs out, so to me the only logical answer to how they came to be has to be by a superior force, which I call God.

 

There are often times I wish God interceded in our lives, but the evidence I see says otherwise.

[thaibeachlovers]

11 hours ago, Hummin said:

It is what you want it to be, which seems to sums it up for most in here who have an opinion. 

My opinion is that it doesn't exist, so according to you that makes it true for me.

My philosophy on life is that <deleted> happens, whether we deserve it or not. Is the death of a 2 year old because of a brain tumour karma, or just <deleted>?.

[save the frogs]

12 hours ago, Sunmaster said:

coupled with "mumbo jumbo" (a term I very much dislike),

sorry, i need to ask.

is this a thread or a cult?

you guys found your little corner of the forum to operate your cult?

nobody cares what terms you like or don't like. 

[mauGR1]

6 minutes ago, save the frogs said:

sorry, i need to ask.

is this a thread or a cult?

you guys found your little corner of the forum to operate your cult?

nobody cares what terms you like or don't like. 

I like the term mumbo-jumbo, it sounds funny, although it smells a little of "white- supremacist".

If you look better, you may find that every one of the very few regular contributors have different ideas.

How different,  you have no idea ????

 

[Sunmaster]

15 minutes ago, save the frogs said:

sorry, i need to ask.

is this a thread or a cult?

you guys found your little corner of the forum to operate your cult?

nobody cares what terms you like or don't like. 

Whenever you use the term mumbo jumbo, you automatically stop any possible conversation and exchange of ideas. You (I mean in general) dismiss arguments outright, without analysing them or bringing counter arguments to refute them. That's what I don't like. 

 

As for the cult part, I don't think that even needs a reply tbh.

[ravip]

13 hours ago, Sunmaster said:

You are jumping too far, I think.

I didn't ask about a Super Being or Creator and I certainly never asked anyone to just have faith. On the contrary. From the very beginning of this thread (yes, I went back to check), my main argument with both skeptics and believers, was that the only way to know if we are more than a flesh machine, is through direct experience. 

Only direct experience can offer you proof of the existence of that something else. 

Only direct experience can eliminate the need for faith.

Only direct experience has the power of lasting transformation.

 

I don't believe what I believe because I have faith. That wouldn't be enough for me. I need to grab the bull by the horns, look the tiger in the eyes, I need action, I need verification. I need to know who or what was (and is) there before the ego was constructed. 

This is where I believe all the answers lie and I will hold to this until I die.

 

This is my path. I don't have the arrogance to say that it should be everyone's path, because it isn't. Yet, I think that the endpoint is the same for everyone. 

Only direct experience can...

Now who can or is eligible to have this "direct experience" ?

 

[Sunmaster]

4 minutes ago, ravip said:

Only direct experience can...

Now who can or is eligible to have this "direct experience" ?

 

Anyone, of course. 

[ravip]

1 hour ago, Sunmaster said:

Anyone, of course. 

How? 

[Sunmaster]

16 minutes ago, ravip said:

How? 

By exploring your inner world.

This can be done through a number of different methods. Yoga (not just the stretchy western style), meditation, psychotherapy, art/being creative, trusting your own intuition, self-inquiry and many more. The inner senses are like muscles...they need to be used and trained to be effective. The more effective they are, the more you can trust the info they offer you. The more you trust them, the more you will use them. The more you use them, the better you will know yourself. 
It's a learning process just like when you learn to play a musical instrument, with the difference that in our case, YOU are the instrument.

No mumbo jumbo here, but a very practical and logical approach to what people call spirituality.
 

[Woof999]

Karma as I see it, in terms of how most people define it, does not exist. It is purely coincidence. People only see the matching events and deem it as proof.

 

I find it akin to "80% of survivors of a plane crash read the safety card before the flight" being used as proof that the safety card saved lives. It might have, but that one statistic alone does not prove much at all and it totally ignores how many people who read the safety card perished. Perhaps 90% of the people who perished had read the safety card.

 

If you take the fuller definition of karma then I think it certainly can exist for those with a strong moral compass, because they will perhaps dwell on their past actions to a greater extent and let them further shape their future. In fact that is true of all of us. We are the sum of our past experiences. As a doubter in the external existence of a single soul though, I personally believe that this is only the case during a single lifetime (ie no karma from previous lives etc).

[Tippaporn]

Ever wonder why so many farang hailing from Christian countries end up swapping Christianity for Buddhism?  Ever wonder if they're simply swapping one set of dogmas for another set of dogmas?

[Hummin]

3 minutes ago, Tippaporn said:

Ever wonder why so many farang hailing from Christian countries end up swapping Christianity for Buddhism?  Ever wonder if they're simply swapping one set of dogmas for another set of dogmas?

Candy shopping and true, Jesus must had been inspired by eastern philosophy and beliefs, so not that different combined with the local practice and influence.

[Tippaporn]

On 3/8/2023 at 10:54 AM, ravip said:

...the early worm gets eaten by the bird.

So been early is good for the bird, but fatal for the worm.

Earth is a gigantic recycling plant.  Everyone checks out only when they're good and ready.  Including the worm.

[Sunmaster]

2 minutes ago, Tippaporn said:

Earth is a gigantic recycling plant.  Everyone checks out only when they're good and ready.  Including the worm.

Unusually short posts from you today. Are you feeling ok? ????