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Swami
Eggshell Walker
Registered: 01/18/00
Posts: 15,413
Loc: In the hen house
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The Ten Commandments
#3435918 - 12/02/04 01:14 AM (19 years, 3 months ago) |
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Here is the real deal:
The Ten Commandments are not so much God's Laws in the sense that if you break them, you will displease God. They are more like laws of the universe that if you break them, you will never reach your highest self. It is like a map of land mines saying, "Don't step here! Don't step here!" It is compacted wisdom; guideposts to keep your journey steady. They are reminders telling you that if you are dabbling in one of those areas, then you are off the trail and likely to get lost.
It is a navigational aid and has nothing to do with outside punishment. Diverting from the commandments will only bring one SELF-INFLICTED misery.
Now back to your regularly scheduled Swami...
-------------------- The proof is in the pudding.
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SkorpivoMusterion
Livin in theTwilight Zone...
Registered: 01/30/03
Posts: 9,954
Loc: You can't spell fungus wi...
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Re: The Ten Commandments [Re: Swami]
#3435944 - 12/02/04 01:26 AM (19 years, 3 months ago) |
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Amen, brutha. Preach on.
I'd also like to add that you can still use the term God in place of "higher self". The model of God that is used in Christianity tends to be quite archetypal, as most Gods are. They embody the highest aspects of human aspiration. Gods on the altars are essential metaphors for the human spiritual experience. If we maintain faith in this sense, then we have its reward of becoming better people. If we become better people, then our faith has results. It is we who create faith, and it is through our efforts that faith is validated.
-------------------- Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death, and sweet as love.
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Zero7a1
Leaving YourWasteland
Registered: 10/23/02
Posts: 3,594
Loc: Passing Cloud
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Re: The Ten Commandments [Re: Swami]
#3436042 - 12/02/04 02:50 AM (19 years, 3 months ago) |
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IT will bring self inflicted misery... much like the seven deadly sins, eh?
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Seuss
Error: divide byzero
Registered: 04/27/01
Posts: 23,480
Loc: Caribbean
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Re: The Ten Commandments [Re: Zero7a1]
#3436185 - 12/02/04 05:39 AM (19 years, 3 months ago) |
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The ten commandments can be distilled down into two thoughts: Love your neighbor as you love yourself; love God above all else.
-------------------- Just another spore in the wind.
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skystone
stop the motion
Registered: 11/08/04
Posts: 465
Loc: state,country,etc.
Last seen: 19 years, 1 month
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Re: The Ten Commandments [Re: Seuss]
#3436287 - 12/02/04 07:07 AM (19 years, 3 months ago) |
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I think these commandments have little to do with spirituality, they served the same purpuse as today's laws to, to keep the piece and order in the civilisation, and to prevent selfdestruction of society.
-------------------- "..and suddenly it began to rain"
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redgreenvines
irregular verb
Registered: 04/08/04
Posts: 38,062
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Re: The Ten Commandments [Re: skystone]
#3436323 - 12/02/04 07:33 AM (19 years, 3 months ago) |
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if you have a good lawyer, or belong to the most exclusive clubs, those commandments are like plasticine
carved in stone paper wraps stone scissors cut paper etc.
-------------------- _ 🧠_
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CherryBom
Yoga Gypsy
Registered: 12/26/98
Posts: 11,177
Loc: Ontario
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Re: The Ten Commandments [Re: Swami]
#3436455 - 12/02/04 08:45 AM (19 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
Swami said: It is a navigational aid and has nothing to do with outside punishment. Diverting from the commandments will only bring one SELF-INFLICTED misery.
I dig this. Shouldn't we really be doing good and being good because we want to be decent people? Not because of a inner fear of displeasing this quietly vengeful 'god'?
Be good and do good because you want to, not because you have to. Anyways, 'god' knows your intentions just as well as you do, because your beautiful human soul is a part of that.... one of the same.
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Cyber
Ash
Registered: 06/14/04
Posts: 1,476
Loc: Dearborn Michigan
Last seen: 10 months, 16 days
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Re: The Ten Commandments [Re: skystone]
#3436468 - 12/02/04 08:50 AM (19 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
skystone said: I think these commandments have little to do with spirituality, they served the same purpuse as today's laws to, to keep the piece and order in the civilisation, and to prevent selfdestruction of society.
Read it before opening your mouth and inserting your foot!
Exodus 20: 3-17
- Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
- Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any
thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
- Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD
will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
- Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour,
and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
- Thou shalt not kill.
- Thou shalt not commit adultery.
- Thou shalt not steal.
- Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
- Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy
neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor's.
The first 5 have everything to do with the Jewish/Christian ideals.
I say everyone should follow the 40 commandments of Maat as written by the scribe Ani in 1500BC
1.Thou shalt not commit sin. 2.Thou shalt not commit robbery with violence. 3.Thou shalt not steel. 4.Thou shalt not murder men and women. 5.Thou shalt not steel grain. 6.Thou shalt not purloin offerings. 7.Thou shalt not steel the property of Neter. 8.Thou shalt not uttered lies. 9.Thou shalt not carry away food. 10.Thou shalt not utter curses. 11.Thou shalt not commit adultery. 12.Thou shalt not make one weep. 13.Thou shalt not eat the heart. 14.Thou shalt not attack any man. 15.Thou shalt not be a man of deceit. 16.Thou shalt not steel cultivated land. 17.Thou shalt not be an eavesdropper. 18.Thou shalt not slandered. 19.Thou shalt not be angry without just cause. 20.Thou shalt not debauched the wife of any man. 21.Thou shalt not pollute thyself. 22.Thou shalt not terrorize another. 23.Thou shalt not transgressed the law. 24.Thou shalt not be wroth. 25.Thou shalt not shut thy ears to the words of truth. 26.Thou shalt not blasphemed. 27.Thou shalt not be a man of violence. 28.Thou shalt not be a stirrer up of strife. 29.Thou shalt not act with undue haste. 30.Thou shalt not pry into matters. 31.Thou shalt not multiply thy words in speaking. 32.Thou shalt not wrong another. 33.Thou shalt do no evil. 34.Thou shalt not stop the flow of water. 35.Thou shalt never raise thy voice. 36.Thou shalt not curse Neteru. 37.Thou shalt not act with arrogance. 38.Thou shalt not steel the bread of the Neteru. 39.Thou shalt not snatch away the bread of a child. 40.Thou shalt not treat with contempt the Neter of my city.
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CherryBom
Yoga Gypsy
Registered: 12/26/98
Posts: 11,177
Loc: Ontario
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Re: The Ten Commandments [Re: Cyber]
#3436494 - 12/02/04 08:57 AM (19 years, 3 months ago) |
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Interesting.
38.Thou shalt not steel the bread of the Neteru. 40.Thou shalt not treat with contempt the Neter of my city.
What/who is Neteru or Neter?
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silversoul7
Chill the FuckOut!
Registered: 10/10/02
Posts: 27,301
Loc: mndfreeze's puppet army
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Re: The Ten Commandments [Re: Swami]
#3436505 - 12/02/04 09:01 AM (19 years, 3 months ago) |
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I like George Carlin's thoughts on this matter:
Quote:
Here is my problem with the ten commandments- why exactly are there 10?
You simply do not need ten. The list of ten commandments was artificially and deliberately inflated to get it up to ten. Here's what happened:
About 5,000 years ago a bunch of religious and political hustlers got together to try to figure out how to control people and keep them in line. They knew people were basically stupid and would believe anything they were told, so they announced that God had given them some commandments, up on a mountain, when no one was around.
Well let me ask you this- when they were making this shit up, why did they pick 10? Why not 9 or 11? I'll tell you why- because 10 sound official. Ten sounds important! Ten is the basis for the decimal system, it's a decade, it's a psychologically satisfying number (the top ten, the ten most wanted, the ten best dressed). So having ten commandments was really a marketing decision! It is clearly a bullshit list. It's a political document artificially inflated to sell better. I will now show you how you can reduce the number of commandments and come up with a list that's a little more workable and logical. I am going to use the Roman Catholic version because those were the ones I was taught as a little boy.
Let's start with the first three:
I AM THE LORD THY GOD THOU SHALT NOT HAVE STRANGE GODS BEFORE ME
THOU SHALT NOT TAKE THE NAME OF THE LORD THY GOD IN VAIN
THOU SHALT KEEP HOLY THE SABBATH
Right off the bat the first three are pure bullshit. Sabbath day? Lord's name? strange gods? Spooky language! Designed to scare and control primitive people. In no way does superstitious nonsense like this apply to the lives of intelligent civilized humans in the 21st century. So now we're down to 7. Next:
HONOR THY FATHER AND MOTHER
Obedience, respect for authority. Just another name for controlling people. The truth is that obedience and respect shouldn't be automatic. They should be earned and based on the parent's performance. Some parents deserve respect, but most of them don't, period. You're down to six.
Now in the interest of logic, something religion is very uncomfortable with, we're going to jump around the list a little bit.
THOU SHALT NOT STEAL
THOU SHALT NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS
Stealing and lying. Well actually, these two both prohibit the same kind of behavior- dishonesty. So you don't really need two you combine them and call the commandment "thou shalt not be dishonest". And suddenly you're down to 5.
And as long as we're combining I have two others that belong together:
THOU SHALT NOT COMMIT ADULTRY
THOU SHALT NOT COVET THY NEIGHBOR'S WIFE
Once again, these two prohibit the same type of behavior. In this case it is marital infidelity. The difference is- coveting takes place in the mind. But I don't think you should outlaw fantasizing about someone else's wife because what is a guy gonna think about when he's waxing his carrot? But, marital infidelity is a good idea so we're gonna keep this one and call it "thou shalt not be unfaithful". And suddenly we're down to four.
But when you think about it, honesty and infidelity are really part of the same overall value so, in truth, you could combine the two honesty commandments with the two fidelity commandments and give them simpler language, positive language instead of negative language and call the whole thing "thou shalt always be honest and faithful" and we're down to 3.
THOU SHALT NOT COVET THY NEIGHBOR"S GOODS
This one is just plain fuckin' stupid. Coveting your neighbor's goods is what keeps the economy going! Your neighbor gets a vibrator that plays "o come o ye faithful", and you want one too! Coveting creates jobs, so leave it alone. You throw out coveting and you're down to 2 now- the big honesty and fidelity commandment and the one we haven't talked about yet:
THOU SHALT NOT KILL
Murder. But when you think about it, religion has never really had a big problem with murder. More people have been killed in the name of god than for any other reason. All you have to do is look at Northern Ireland, Cashmire, the Inquisition, the Crusades, and the World Trade Center to see how seriously the religious folks take thou shalt not kill. The more devout they are, the more they see murder as being negotiable. It depends on who's doin the killin' and who's gettin' killed. So, with all of this in mind, I give you my revised list of the two commandments:
Thou shalt always be honest and faithful to the provider of thy nookie.
&
Thou shalt try real hard not to kill anyone, unless of course they pray to a different invisible man than you.
Two is all you need; Moses could have carried them down the hill in his fuckin' pocket. I wouldn't mind those folks in Alabama posting them on the courthouse wall, as long as they provided one additional commandment:
Thou shalt keep thy religion to thyself.
-------------------- "It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."--Voltaire
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Cyber
Ash
Registered: 06/14/04
Posts: 1,476
Loc: Dearborn Michigan
Last seen: 10 months, 16 days
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Re: The Ten Commandments [Re: CherryBom]
#3436524 - 12/02/04 09:08 AM (19 years, 3 months ago) |
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Quote:
CherryBomb said: Interesting. 38.Thou shalt not steel the bread of the Neteru. 40.Thou shalt not treat with contempt the Neter of my city. What/who is Neteru or Neter?
Neter is the singular and Neteru is the plural. They are ancient Kemetic words that loosely translate to god/gods. The reason I say loosely is because the Ancient concept of god was more complex than the christian concept. It is easiest to sum it up as "God is so far beyond man that man can not comprehend god as a hole. Because of this man must break god up into the various gods so that he can understand. All are part of the whole but independent at the same time." Kind of like the christian trinity (The three that act as one). Although a better analogy would be the Jewish Talbot. When written in Hebrew it is written with no spaces or punctuation. The reason is that it is believed to be the name of god. It is man that must break it up to understand it.
Edited by Cyber (12/02/04 09:19 AM)
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CherryBom
Yoga Gypsy
Registered: 12/26/98
Posts: 11,177
Loc: Ontario
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Re: The Ten Commandments [Re: Cyber]
#3436559 - 12/02/04 09:17 AM (19 years, 3 months ago) |
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Thank you.
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Anonymous
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Re: The Ten Commandments [Re: Swami]
#3436582 - 12/02/04 09:23 AM (19 years, 3 months ago) |
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I have a huge problem with the Ten Commandments. They're not guidelines at all. Sometimes you're even better off doing the opposite of what they say. They promote blind obediance, selfishness, and dependence on outdated social structures.
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gettinjiggywithit
jiggy
Registered: 07/20/04
Posts: 7,469
Loc: Heart of Laughter
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Re: The Ten Commandments [Re: ]
#3436597 - 12/02/04 09:30 AM (19 years, 3 months ago) |
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How bout it! The forgiving of free will had them canceled out before they even came into play. The only law that sticks is that of cause and effect. We have choice and natural consequence. No additional consequence need be applied unless you want to distract the simpletons from the truth of how it works and fuck em up even more. Joey already feels horrible he fed his dog anti freeze and can no longer play fetch with fido. Lets take away his allowance for a month to make him feel worse. The additional punishment will distract him from experiencing the natural consequence of the loss of his best friend which he was meant to learn from. We will divert his sad emotion into anger hating us for taking away his allowance so we can feel more powerful with the hate energy he is sending us. In his anger towards us, he will go on to do more to piss us off out of vengence and we can punish him further and he will never learn but grow worse in ignorance. Muhuahahahahaha
-------------------- Ahuwale ka nane huna.
Edited by gettinjiggywithit (12/02/04 09:40 AM)
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CherryBom
Yoga Gypsy
Registered: 12/26/98
Posts: 11,177
Loc: Ontario
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Judge the weak! Condemn the sheep! They will fear the power, because without fear, there will be chaos. Without our leadership sinners will run rampant fucking and fighting and stealing.
Or will they?
Am I a sinner because I question what I've been told in light of my own logic? Did this 'god' you speak of not instill this very logic that questions the holy royalty within me?
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gettinjiggywithit
jiggy
Registered: 07/20/04
Posts: 7,469
Loc: Heart of Laughter
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Re: The Ten Commandments [Re: CherryBom]
#3436636 - 12/02/04 09:45 AM (19 years, 3 months ago) |
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Were you replying to me asking your last question or did you hit quick reply?
I don't beleive in sinners and I beleive in questioning the self!
-------------------- Ahuwale ka nane huna.
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CherryBom
Yoga Gypsy
Registered: 12/26/98
Posts: 11,177
Loc: Ontario
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That was more of a general reply, not really directed towards anyone.
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FreakQlibrium
Son of Uncle Meat
Registered: 06/06/02
Posts: 19,058
Loc: Toronto Canada
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Re: The Ten Commandments [Re: CherryBom]
#3437172 - 12/02/04 11:56 AM (19 years, 3 months ago) |
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I agree with what you said Bom, we should all be like this(following the 10 commandments without even knowing what they are) But God in his infinite wisdom knows that most people are NOT like this naturally and therefore need these guidlines in an attempt to get them to act the way they should anyway even without the commandments, is this making any sense?
-------------------- "Being crazier than a shithouse rat is not sufficient grounds for banishment"
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CherryBom
Yoga Gypsy
Registered: 12/26/98
Posts: 11,177
Loc: Ontario
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It makes sense on the surface.
I think the bible is taken far to literally.
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gettinjiggywithit
jiggy
Registered: 07/20/04
Posts: 7,469
Loc: Heart of Laughter
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What was free will for-given to us for if we are suppose to be acting a certain way?
Lucy has some splaining to do.
-------------------- Ahuwale ka nane huna.
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