Name: Lex
Email:
Web Site: http://spiritualtextsonline.com
Bio: Lexter Gaines (Dec. 1973 - Present), is a Spiritual Texts Online author, publisher and creative director. SpiritualTextsOnline is the official site for Lexter and Spiritual Texts Online, LLC. As a student of Life, Lexter continues his exploration into the meaning of life through science and spirituality. His rather "new age" approach to theology and religion combined with inquires from the cutting edge of science combine to form his world-view.
Posts by Lex:
- Hold firmly to the idea that God is compassionate and just.
- Abandon the idea that God ever commanded or condoned the mass murder of innocent people.
- Consider the possibility that it is not blasphemous to believe that God’s actions are limited by objective moral principles.
- Let compassion temper our fury and restrain us from waging wars of annihilation.
Acceptance
November 19th, 2011The attitudes of praise and thanksgiving produce a beneficial effect. They not only lighten the consciousness, lifting it out of sadness and depression, they elevate consciousness to a point of acceptance. Acceptance of the present experience, pleasant or unpleasant, just as it is, without either clinging to it or rejecting it. And since everything is but an apparition, having nothing to do with good or bad, acceptance or rejection, one may well burst out into laughter.
Today, my meditation is one of affirmation which incorporates a complete acceptance of the eternal gift of the Spirit. I am lifting the cup of acceptance high, knowing that the divine universal supply fills it to overflowing with health, joy, and wisdom.
- Lexter Gaines
Stress and The Mind – Body Interaction
November 16th, 2011Having the ability to recognize how your body reacts to external stimuli and events (including stress) is a powerful tool. As is the case with most people, awareness is usually focused on their finances (or lack thereof), the time of day, the weather, the car that cut them off this morning, etc. The thing is, your body registers stress before the mind does. The most common way our bodies let us know we are under stress is muscle tension. Therefore, body awareness is the first step toward acknowledging and reducing stress.
Although we may not be aware of it, our bodies have a consciousness. The body has a wisdom, an awareness, and perceptions unto itself. Joseph Campbell called this, “the wisdom consciousness of the body”.
Many studies show the relationship between chronic muscle tension (body), and certain attitudes or held beliefs (mind). The problem, of course, is chronic tension held in the body can have physically damaging effects – restricted digestion, decreased energy, lowered motivation and ultimately debilitating depression.
Separating the external, “objective” world from your mental world is important. In fact, in Zen, this Mental Training is the first step toward enlightenment. In The Religion of the Samurai [1913], Kaiten Nukariya writes:
“The first step in the mental training is to become the master of external things. He who is addicted to worldly pleasures, however learned or ignorant he may be, however high or low his social position may be, is a servant to mere things. He cannot adapt the external world to his own end, but he adapts himself to it. He is constantly employed, ordered, driven by objects. Instead of taking possession of wealth, he is possessed by wealth. Instead of drinking liquors, he is swallowed up by his liquors. Balls and music bid him to run mad. Games and shows order him not to stay at home. Houses, furniture, pictures, watches, chains, rings, bracelets, shoes–in short, everything has a word to command him. How can such a person be the master of things?”
STO’s QR
September 2nd, 2011Killing in God’s Name: The Problem with Holy Wars
July 15th, 2011Christians, Jews, and Muslims all share the fundamental belief that God is compassionate and just. So then, why do some members of those same communities believe that it is their moral obligation to wage aggressive holy war, even to annihilate innocent people in God’s name? Religious violence can take on a particularly intense and ruthless character, if the objects of that violence are seen as blaspheming or insulting God.
The problem of holy war is extremely difficult for Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The idea of eliminating it from within is impossible because it’s so deeply rooted in their scriptural traditions. The same religious traditions that affirm God to be compassionate, merciful, and just, also include more disturbing claims that promote religious hatred and intolerance, and sadly have provided a rationale for aggressive holy war, and the atrocities that holy wars always engender.
Since the Hebrew Bible is considered sacred by all three traditions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), it makes a good starting point for a discussion on holy war.
The Mosaic commandment prohibiting murder is found in the book of Exodus 20:13. Why is murder wrong? Essentially because people are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27, 9:6). From this, one might infer that no killing of persons would be allowed at all, that the concept of human beings as made in God’s image would entail strict pacifism, and an absolute duty not to kill people.
But that is not what the ancient Hebrews concluded, since many offenses were subject to capital punishment (Exodus 21-22). So in the Hebrew interpretation, all persons have a basic right not to be killed, but they can forfeit that right if they commit a serious enough crime. God demanded purity and strict obedience, and idolatry and blasphemy were punishable by death (Exodus 20:3, 5). This is inconsistent with punishing only those guilty of crimes (Deuteronomy 24:16) and limiting the use of deadly force to the defense of innocent others or oneself.
In the Islamic tradition, there is a similar mixture of values restraining war along with others promoting it. The Qur’an repeatedly refers to God as compassionate and just. It also says that “there is no compulsion in religion” (2:256): submission to God must be freely chosen, not forced (Ali). Furthermore, The Qur’an urges Muslims to use “beautiful preaching” to persuade people to accept Islam and to “argue nicely” with Jews and Christians who are seen as worshipping the same God as their own (16:125, 29:46, Firestone). And, this is probably the attitude of most Muslims today.
Anyone who infers a mandate to wage indiscriminate, offensive war from Qur’an 9:5, “Kill the idolaters wherever you find them,” could only do so by ignoring the particular historical context of that passage. There are many scriptures found elsewhere in The Qur’an that urge defensive and limited uses of force only. Such is the case in Qur’an 2:190, “Fight in the path of God those who fight you, but do not transgress limits, for God does not love transgressors,” and numerous other verses praising patience in adversity and nonviolent preaching (Firestone).
Jesus Christ, in spite of the loving and peaceful tenor of his teachings, did occasionally show anger, like when he confronted the merchants in the Temple (John 2:13-16). Some New Testament passages also appear to accept the idea of a military, if not explicitly praise it: Roman soldiers who met Jesus, John the Baptist, Peter and Paul were not asked by any of them to abandon their vocation (Luke-Acts 3 and 7; 10 and 27). There’s even a passage where Jesus seems to permit his disciples to carry swords, and by implication to use them in some situations, though that passage appears only in Luke 22 and is very ambiguous. Jesus also claimed to have the authority to call on legions of angels to protect him. But Jesus held back because that action would have conflicted with his sacrificial mission (Matthew 26). Paul in Chapter 13 of his letter to the Romans declared, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.” He who is in authority “is the servant of God to execute his wrath on the wrongdoer.” This text was cited by many later Christians as divine justification for military force.
Here on SpiriutalTextsOnline.com, I’d like to offer some theological suggestions in response to holy war:
- Lexter N. Gaines
Quote of the Day
June 25th, 2011Heaven and earth do not act from (the impulse of) any wish to be benevolent; they deal with all things as the dogs of grass are dealt with. The sages do not act from (any wish to be) benevolent; they deal with the people as the dogs of grass are dealt with.
The Tao Te Ching
The Buddha vs. The Christ
May 24th, 2011The life of The Buddha as with the lives of all saviors are not to be taken literally. The important thing is the implication of the life rather than the disputable, historical details about the life itself. When you read the stories of The Buddha or The Christ (Jesus) symbolically , you will find that they tell you much the same thing. The birth of The Buddha and the birth Jesus Christ are both representative of the birth of our spiritual lives. When we awaken to the idea that God is a projection of the energy within us, rather than a bearded old man floating in heaven separate from us, our spirituality takes on a whole new dimension.
The similarities between Christianity and Buddhism are too great to ignore. Purgatory in the Christian tradition is reincarnation in Buddhism. The Buddha’s joyful participation in the suffering of the world is reflected in Christ’s willing participation in the crucifixion. The main and perhaps most obvious difference between Christianity and Buddhism is not the story, but our place in the story.
Once we awaken to our spiritual lives, we still have to live in this world. Not all of us want to devote our lives to meditation and contemplation. The question then becomes – how do we achieve a balance?
Over the next few posts, I will attempt to answer that question. As always, your input and feedback is welcome. How have you achieved balance in your life? What does spiritual balance mean to you? By sharing your insights and experiences, you may be able to help others.
Arthur Schopenhauer
May 17th, 2011
Aurthur Schopenhauer was born on 22-Feb-1788 in the city of Danzig (as part of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, 1569-1793). His parents were both descendants of wealthy German “Burgher” families.
Schopenhauer studied metaphysics and psychology under Gottlob Ernst Schulze at the University of Göttingen. For four years, Schopenhauer worked on Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung (The World as Will and Representation). This first volume consisted of four books – covering his epistemology, ontology, aesthetics and ethics.
Schopenhauer also developed some ideas which closely resembled classic examples of Monism, as propounded by the Upanishads and Vedanta (from the Hindu tradition). Many western philosophers including Nietzsche, Jung, Borges, D.H. Lawrence and Wagner were influenced by his work.
Today he is scarcely read because few modern thinkers realize the importance of his recorded thoughts. Schopenhauer maintained that we humans are at one with other animals in our inner-most essence. In Schoopenhauer’s view we are NOT separated as distinct individual beings, BUT it is the idea of individual selfhood which IS the illusion. He believed that humans are being driven along by their mental drives and needs. His writings on this are foundational to the later theories and ideas of the unconscious elaborated upon by Jung, Freud, D.H. Lawrence, and others.