A: My Catechism for he Third Millennium.
A: A.D. Vander Vliet
A:To inform the reader, to give expression and form to some of my views and beliefs and above all to guide and give an example of what I have come to belief necessary for each human being to do namely: To formulate a personal mythology or belief that support us as a person through one's life and helps us function together as a group or as a society.
A:In some cases they are, but in others they are not.
A:Seven 'Sundays' or sections (Cat-I through Cat-VII). Each section was written on a consecutive Sunday. Each consists of questions and answers around one or more themes. A few definitions are given in the end of the questions.
A:This work may be reproduced freely for the purpose of passing it on from one person to a friend. Permission for reproduction must be obtained from the author when the purpose of reproduction is different from the one stated above, be it electronic, group distribution, whether for consideration or otherwise.
A:There are many religions and beliefs, but there is only one God, Whom is served by all.
A:People serve God according to their own nature and need, and all these differ. Therefore people serve God differently.
A: We cannot comment on the nature or extend to which God reveals Hirself, because that would be to know God and Hir motivation. At times we may understand 'God's Intention', but that is no more and no less then the human aspect of the Transcendental Experience. It is not definitive of God who is largely unconscious to Men.
A:God is unconscious and increases Hir awareness through Hir creation, i.e. the universe is God's Self experience in which Hesh is revealed to Hemself. Humans are only a part in that experience.
A:Yes, Men does; also through experience, within this universe.
A:The experience in this universe is necessary because only in this time bound, three dimensional physical world can we bring about change to our spiritual person by learning from experience.
A:As a person Men has a biological platform (body) for the spiritual (non-physical/non-material) entity. Experience in this universe takes place by means of the body. This experience is necessary for the spiritual aspect of Men to be able to change.
A:In the spiritual reality there is eternity, that is 'no time'. If there is no time, change cannot be registered because today would be confused with yesterday, and tomorrow with now. In the spiritual aspect of existence, place can be altered at a thought's impulse. Thus thinking about a place puts you there, thus physical isolation in the spiritual aspect of existence is impossible, so is being time bound.
A:In the spiritual mode of existence we are clear about our own intentions, thoughts, feelings and those of others and also we have a clear understanding of the physical world, but we are unable to act in it without a body.
A:My existence alternates between being in this physical world and being in the spiritual world. In either world I am aware of the other, but can only act upon it in a very indirect manner. (There is influence.)
A:I benefit because my experience in the physical world enables me to bring about changes that I want to bring to expression as I have come to understand them in the spiritual world.
Do I then choose my life in this physical world as best as I can, to bring about experience for my change, as I have come to a conclusion in the spiritual world?
Yes. Not only that, as I progress in this world toward old age (of the body), I should prepare myself for the transition to the next.
A:That change can be brought about through learning. For this learning to be permanent, it has to take place in the physical world.
End Cat I
A:Men only knows of that what is Men's, through hir body and spirit and the psyche; but what the God being knows is of all creation; it is the essence of it's being to encompass the experience of the universe as a whole, like Men encompasses the experience of hir body and psyche as a whole.
Therefore the God-being can know of things that Men cannot ever know. Yet it is through Men in particular and through the 'creation'= universe in general, that the God-being gains Hir conscious knowledge. The God- being gains consciousness through Hir creation and Men is a part of that process. This is how Men serves the God-being.
A:The God-being can be presented to Men as a person in order to enhance comprehension. The appearance in the form of a person is only a chosen form for the sake of relating.
A:It is fairly sure that there are other forms, such as animals, through which experience is gained. There may be forms that comprise a greater range of consciousness then Men is capable of. However, Men must deal with Hir own lot as best as hesh can.
Declarative Summary: It is the 'nature' of God to know the universe through the existence of all its parts. It is the 'nature' of Men to contribute to the conscious awareness of the God-being, for what we describe as the world of Men. This is a part of the whole, so that the whole may exist in greater consciousness/awareness of itself.
A:The god experience in each religion or belief matches the world and perspective of the believer, such that he/she can comprehend it best for the function that it must serve.
Such an appearance is a response of the (collective) god to the personal being, but not necessarily to the individual. The person may become the message bearer, and so perform a task that is needed for the collective of Men.
A:A direct experience of the God-being that underlies the universe is too powerful for any of the parts to survive. It may be the big bang, all creative/destructive. To understand any of the parts, the part's nature must be respected.
Therefore it must be brought to consciousness. Only then can meaningful communication between the part and the rest of the universe take place. It must be understood that in such an exchange, both gain in knowing and understanding. It is the 'duty' of each of the parts to bring itself to consciousness and thus contribute to the consciousness of the whole of the universe.
A:It includes all that we are conscious of and all that is, but of which we are unconscious. It includes all the opposites (beauty-ugliness; good-evil; creation-destruction; ...).
Consciousness is the state where those apparent conflicts or opposites can be maintained in awareness, without overwhelming the beholder. This takes power, gained through experience; the experience of the lived lives.
A:At times nature's course must be taken, but to not act in the stream of events is to become a part of them. In contrast consciousness arises out of conflict and from taking a position; of having a theory. There is no meaningful observation without a theory, and therefore no possibility to gain a greater understanding without it.
Men grows as person through such a process. Identity is born from the conflict and strives, while it disappears in non-action. But Men grows through a variety of experiences that must take turns: Healing, Fighting, Hoping, Destructing, Creating, Maintaining, Punishing, Nurturing, Torturing, etc.
A:Yes, the most important ones are the ones that are most numerous.
A:As a person both (all) are equally important. As symbol, the king is more visible and serves a symbolic function, while the garbage person serves a practical one. In the symbolic function it is much more difficult to pursue one's own personal development then in the practical function.
A:This symbol focuses the energy, and provides a lightning rod of discontent, that would otherwise disrupt the functioning of the parts and the people within the organization. This symbolic function is a part of the need to structure our human lives. End Cat - II.
A:No, but it is a gift; the culmination of working out and having resolved conflicts within a group of humans. The energy that was dissipated in the conflicts, fights, wars and destruction, now becomes channelled towards a common goal, shared values and symbols that are agreed on by most as a resolution of all the conflicts. The worship of the new symbolism is seen as a means to resolve and prevent the conflicts and destruction. A new 'go(o)d' is to be worshipped. And this is true as the effects show.
Culture then is the outflow, fruit or product of humans having resolved their conflicts. The magnificence of some cultures show the energy that can be harnessed and the accomplishments achieved when Men puts hir mind to this.
A:Two reasons:
The first is that all structure and processes, even when successful, are not perfect. They ignore things, leave them out, or suppress and persecute those ideas that threaten the structure for fear of falling back into the old conflicts.
Even though a cultural structure may last for 500 years, over time the neglected parts become more dominant because of continued neglect. Also, new conflicts come about, which will only be partially resolved. Furthermore not all Men's actions are altruistic or neutral. Every person at times will act from self-advantage and even from maliciousness.
In the end, the powers that be, defend the structure of the status quo, as it serves them since they came up through it. By that time the structure no longer serves the people. The people feel 'overtaxed', the culture turns ripe, and becomes vulnerable to outside forces since it cannot renew itself from within.
The second reason is a question: Q. Why can the system/culture not renew from within?
The process of finding a new structure for society is not a conscious process. It happens. No one can explain why or how etc. satisfactorily. Rationales are given, but these only have the effect of making people feel better.
The true solution is worked out in action. Acted out in projection, through much suffering, until the insights are gained about how to cooperate, value and understand each other, such that society can function again.
A:All the existing cultures have come under siege in the last 500 years. The unusual aspect is that all are now in that position world wide. In previous times one culture would be under siege, while the other was growing up.
A:About 500 years ago the North American Indian culture, though it had contact with other cultures before, came under siege by the West Europeans, who were put upon by Asia; Moslem and Mongols in the past. Similarly, the African and Australian autochthonous cultures were threatened. The West Europeans had the least established culture after the Arabs. China, India, Japan were well established (fortunately).
Thus we see that West Europeans mainly settled regions where the 'Nature Cultures' existed. Yet these cultures, after 500 years, have not died, even though they have changed.
Similarly, now the Chinese, Japanese, Islamic cultures have come under siege from the Western Technology first of all, but also from each other, witness Japan's expansion in Asia in 1930-40 era, and now again economically.
Actually the economic expansion of Japan and Western Europe replaced the military one. Yet the old culture wants to maintain its values and identity, while the Technology based societies must learn to accommodate other value sets as well. This includes a sharing and letting go of wealth, power, living standard etc. This is not given up voluntarily, hence we get conflicts.
A:Men cannot live without a structure that orders hir world. The animal's world is structured through instincts. Men lacks most of them, and has a freedom of action because of it, but as a result the world to Men appears chaotic. Hence, the gods of the religions create order for him, so that s/he may live.
A:Without this order, Men would not know how to act, nor when. Being caught in inaction Men becomes extremely vulnerable, both physically and mentally.
A:In a random world, without an imposed order, Men must give equal attention to all things s/he can perceive. By creating a theory (order) about certain events, even if wrong as far as cause and effect is concerned, Men has gained an advantage because certain random effects can now be predicted. This frees him/her up to pay attention to something else.
These models of order based on experience, are passed on through the generations through the story tellers of the tribes, and later were recorded in books etc. This 'word of god', i.e. of the elders = the fathers = is a precious gift from the past generations and must be honoured and protected 'Our Tradition'.
A:Similar traditions, because they are alike, but not the same, lead to confusion, which in turn leads to inaction and thus vulnerability, hunger, disease and death. So I rather fight and maybe die for my tradition, then become confused and die for sure.
Based on old tribal identities of group-success; -being cast out of the group = death to the individual -; so he/she fights to support the group. Hesh identity is tied up with the group - Remember excommunication, unemployment -; "The tradition of- and the functioning identity of the group is more important than the individual". This is the law that is operative here, based on tribal, group experiences, maybe going back as far as animal ancestry!
A:These things are not widely known or acknowledged. Existing power structures do not like to be examined, exposed or explained. Also, members of each group are going to have to accommodate values from groups. This is a very threatening experience, so we tend to fight it.
A:Change will come, some for better, some for worse. If Men as a whole does not learn to live together in a world community, Men will perish for sure. Change can come two ways.
One way is the unconscious way, where we fight, suffer, injure each other until, combined with possible overwhelming outside odds that threaten our survival as a human race, we decide that we will all be better off by accommodating our differences and aim for a common cultural structure.
The second way is to become aware of these processes and to consciously go about seeking solutions for them; (NB:1, see Q:13). We will probably do a bit of both.
A:Men will remain in conflicts and use up hir energies and spend the earth's resources on the conflict. Eventually the earth will be hit by an astronomical body (1989/90 an object passed within halve the moon's distance from the earth with less then 24 hour notice.)
Men may not survive such an event and even if we do, culture may be set back irreversibly. Our fascination with the fate of the dinosaurs is a psychological pointer to the fact that we unconsciously know that it could happen to us as well.
A:Men must learn to cooperate and live together in a world community. Together we can then exploit the earth's resources to access the resources of this solar system (Our back yard.) Then, in order to escape from this solar system, we can exploit it to find our way to another planetary system. We do not really know how much time we have to make those moves. May be we have 10 000 years. (To exploit is meant in the sense of balanced and sustained deployment, with a respect paid to nature.)
A:It is for an individual, but for Men as a race it is not. Consider the following figures:
A:The best explanation is that people choose the lives that they live on earth. Based on passed experiences a person chooses the conditions such that will help her/him in bringing them closer to the chosen goal of life expression.
The purpose of life is like the purpose of a flower, a cloud or an ant. They are, and the reason for their being is to give expression to life in that particular fashion. In that expression there is an individual satisfaction and at the same time a service to the universal being, which conscious experience is also enhanced.
A:A person does not remember because hesh chooses not to remember. This may seem like circular argumentation, but it is not entirely.
When a person plans her/his new life in which to gain certain experience, one is bound by the rule of balance and past experience.
According to the rule of balance an individual must choose within his/her capability and in relation to one's past experience, otherwise the new life may not work out, and a detrimental experience may result in much work to be overcome later on. Based on past life experience, a person must also balance reward for things done well and redress for things done unjustly (i.e. doing things that have hampered others or society for further personal gain when not needed). In each life we redress old imbalances and make use of build up credits as it were.
These aspects cannot be fully judged in this (biological) life, but are also judged later in the spiritual state.
Now the reason that a person does not remember, is that such memory would interfere with the experience and ability to achieve the goals of the present life time in this physical reality. The chances are that it would become tempting to cop out of the commitment made before one started one's life here in this physical reality.
A:It would be helpful as long as commitment to the chosen life can be maintained by that person. When the going gets rough the temptation will be strong to stray from the chosen path instead of persevering in it.
Remembering one's goal is not of prime importance. Reaching the goal comes first, whether remembered or not. Remembering can be too distracting, unless one is sure to manage it (i.e. the remembering).
A:Yes, that is so.
A:1 Life may be viewed as an ongoing process that continues from the physical reality into the spiritual reality and around again like this:
Illustration to be inserted here:
Each cycle that we go around in brings new experience and understanding to life in general. We may choose to build an individual/ personal expression, but that is not necessary.
A:It may be, but it leads to strong isolation from the other life expressions and may run counter to it. Witness how Men has devastated the earth, atmosphere and the animal world and influenced the world of microbes, in hir drive for expression as a species and a person. The balance seems to have shifted too much to this personal expression, while the supporting life forms are threatened with extinction.
Good for Men, has become evil for the rest of the earth. This imbalance can not last, and Men must redress it him/her-self, or the unconscious life processes will destroy Mankind.
A:All processes in the spiritual and in the physical realities are balanced in the long run. Any strong shift will produce a counter shift based on the principle of mutual arising or balancing. All things exist in interplay of mutual arising, without it no existence is possible and thus no experience would be possible. No arising, no experience. Thus by overstepping his/her bounds, Men calls up hir own counter forces.
A:Men should conduct hir life to the best of one's ability, i.e. not hold back, this includes to not holding back on good judgement as well. In other words, we must bring our full knowledge, experience and understanding, feeling, awareness, effort, etc. to bear on our life as we have a chance to live it.
Life is basically a gift, even though it may appear as a burden at times as well. We must remember that if we still lived in paradise (a state of awareness), we still would have been ignorant to this date and so would have been god, as god depends on "hir creation" to gain experience and understanding about hir world.
In addition, Men must maintain a four way balance between hir inner and outer (i.e. physical) life and hir individual and group life and 'creation'.1) See note 8 under Definitions.
Illustration 2 to be inserted here:
This figure shows Men crucified in experience between the four states. In addition there is time and eternity.
A:Asking for a purpose is a human need. What is the purpose of a dandelion in the grass over the lily in the garden? There is no more purpose in one than the other, even though we may like (value) one over the other.
But does not the dandelion represent a burst and zest for life and growth, irrepressibility, while the lily asks for continuous nurturing?! So which one stands for independence and self reliance? - The lily or the dandelion? The question of purpose is based on value systems and beliefs and can only be answered by these.
A:See next week - but men must organize his energies through a belief system, otherwise hesh is worse off than the animals that have the instincts to guide them!
End CAT IV.
Preamble: Last week we left off with the question: "Why does Men need beliefs?" with the answer: "Men needs to organise hir energies." This week we will elaborate on this aspect of human behaviour.
A:Science has shown for the last 50 years that at the molecular level and below, a great deal of randomness exists. To day, based on the chaos theory, we see that our solar system is in the long run not a stable system.
Things change continually, giving the impression of chaos. Men can predict very little about hir future, and most early belief frame works seek to remedy this problem by offering a system that creates an order, even where there is none. In a random world any theory or belief system is better than none.
A:If I have no belief system, I need to track many unpredictable events to stay safe, warm and keep fed, etc. This will keep me very busy, because I cannot predict when things grow, bear fruit or turn cold, so I need to watch all the time on my environment.
A:If I could, through my belief system, predict the simplest thing - say the sunrise and the sunset - I could order many of my daily events around this. This is where a belief system helps, because I can now go off to do something else, while the sun shines, and sleep while it is dark.
Having this order/belief system, frees up energy for me. I can now rest efficiently at night and work in the day time. Because I make now more efficient use of my energy, I can do other things that I could not do before, lacking the time and/or energy. This availability of extra time leads to culture -maybe-. It can also lead to war and conflict.
Thus a belief system, by creating order in our lives, frees up time and energy for us to do additional things.
A:Animals have habits, do things in order and have a certain trust. Certain lead cows always go first in feeding, etc. This prevents fights most of the time and that is important, because a community that fights among its members is doomed.
To a great extend, animals rely on instincts to regulate their lives, such as sex -only a certain time to mate-; feeding times andd smell for recognition, but not much beyond that. The perception that the animal has of hir environment is limited. That is, the eagle has no bird's eye view by any means. Men has a much richer understanding of hir environment, but has fewer instincts to regulate hir life.
A:Men is much better able to regulate hir own energies in a conscious manner and for a certain purpose. Men has a greater awareness of hir environment, i.e. can formulate a more accurate picture or belief about how the world functions.
A:C.G. Jung suggests that consciousness arose out of the necessity to resolve conflicts between the instincts, for example the need for sex/propagation as opposed to food; salmon die in the sex act.
The consciousness that arose from this conflict resolution was not one of self awareness, this came much later.Rather it wasof an awareness about conflicts that needed to be resolved.
This resolution of the conflict is based on experience of only one life time. If growth was to be possible, this experience needed passing on otherwise Men would be trapped in a repeating loop where each generation had to learn to resolve the conflict again. The need to pass on equals the benefit gained from it.
It takes place through the teaching and tradition. If we need to learn more to gain a better understanding of the environment, we need a bigger brain. Not only bigger, but also more versatile, i.e. vision and speech, not just all vision. (The visual cortex is a late brain development, but I think speech is even later.)
A:We do not know the time, but the event did not go unnoticed. It has been passed on in the oral stories and later in the written stories. i.e. the paradise story and the fall into sin.
A:No, it never has been, nor does the story report that. The story in Genesis in the Babylonian/Judean tradition, reports Adam and Eve considering that they may become equal or like God.
That is the step into self awareness. 'I am equal to, not subservient.' And this is exactly what lead Men to the awareness of the evil in the world and the good. And since then the world is divided because Men is aware at the same time of good and evil.
In the unconscious i.e. the pre-self-awareness state, Men is fully identified with either the good or the evil, but cannot experience both simultaneously.
A:In this case much is not known. From anthropology we know the different stages of Men, but when belief systems as such started is probably not the question to ask.
Early Men (500 000 BCE) must have passed on learned experience from generation to generation in various ways. This improved greatly when about 150 000 BCE, speech and language matured.
The next significant milestone that we know about, is the petro glyphs, rock paintings etc. (23 000 BCE).
This is followed by the invention of the recorded script (4 000 BCE) and the start of modern culture with science and the new western religion in 1 500 CE, when the world starts to become a closed system, which is now being completed ca. 2 000 CE.
A:The way I see it, is that Men discovered a way of working together to hunt large animals. This method was taught inside the caves, all interwoven with elaborate religious ritual, so that people would remember how to do it right and not fumble the ball on it.
Hunting big animals Men could not do by himself. Men had to work in groups, because as individuals the Neanderthaler was a better equipped hunter. How to learn to work in a group? That was not an easy problem to solve, - Men solved and survived. Hence group membership and group loyalty (faithfulness to the fathers) is paramount.
A:Yes and here is how it may have functioned: Where did the animals come from? Men come from mothers, through an act of god (Impregnation through sexual intercourse was not known until much later.) The animals came from out of the earth. Examples are the gopher, rabbit, badger, mice. The other animals, bigger animals must have bigger holes to come from, so caves were found and had an exit/entrance at the back were the source of the animals.
The animals slowly emerged from the rock and you could feel the shapes of the ones emerging. By painting their shapes you helped them emerge, and find their way to the entrance and the field. Or even get the hunter animals at the back of the cave to chase them out.
All this happened in the dark, where the weak consciousness of early Men retreated and the unconscious suggestion and intuition came up, suggesting which animals needed to be hunted, i.e. would come at this time of year, and which animals the hunters had to learn about and prepare for. All this happened in an atmosphere of religious prayer for the animal master to reveal to lowly Men which animals would be sent this time and when? Once the animal to be hunted had become known through revelation from the master animal to the medicine man or priest, then the rituals were started to recall the memories of how to hunt that particular animal. And the young and old hunters were taught again what to do. Remember - the timing of this thing had to be correct otherwise people would forget!
This belief system helped these people to survive by learning how to cooperate in the hunt for large animals. This in turn created an efficiency that enabled certain people to specialize in the painting of the animals and the communication/ teaching of the hunting techniques to the group as a whole. The process went on over a time span of about 10 000 to 13 000 years! It went on for so long that the last cave users stand closer to us in history than the first cave users to them!
This belief frame work probably also, resulted in the evolution of the animal - master god that was depicted as part Men and part multiple animals and now has become the devil in our christian belief system. End CAT V.
A:The belief system was passed on through the generations for millennia in an oral tradition. For example the N.A. Indians had oral historians (women?) in their tribes, who knew all their stories and traditions. Certain stories belonged to certain families, others were common.
Thru the earlier mastery of language, Men was now able to learn from passed (on) experience in a conscious way. As to why, Men must have felt it important to pass on hir traditions as we do to-day also. We cannot live in an unstructured world. To not pass on the known tradition, is to un-structure the world of and for that new generation.
A:There are fragments, snapshots as it were, that if treated as a part of the whole can be related to each other to form an overall picture. The parts are often well recorded by our modern sciences, such as history, anthropology, zoology, archaeology.
Putting the pieces together is not really a scientific task, but rather one of belief building, or the development of a way to see our existence, making use of that information in a sensible way. It is important to-day that we do this, because our new knowledge about our world must be incorporated, if we are to have functioning worldview. No longer can we say that certain items are not allowed because our hand-me-down tradition does not allow it.
It is Men's responsibility to interpret hir own world as well as possible, otherwise Men will not survive and another chance for the universe to get to know itself will be lost.
A:We can start with the evidence of the cave paintings and like materials. Men worshipped a god or power that regulated the animals Men needed to hunt, and it is typical of religious beliefs that human acts are thought to influence these powers. This belief lends meaning to Men's actions and enables Men to act in the present so that he indeed influences the outcome. However, this is ascribed to the godly power.
Men worshipped the animals as we say, but studies show that this is not so. Animals were animals, and Men were 'the people', that was clear. But there were certain exemplary animals that represented the incarnation of the godly powers which were often human prototypes.
The human prototype personalities incorporated into the animal in order to influence the animal. Men would address them in that incarnation. That is not animal worship. It was based on the past of these early humans. The animals all appeared to know what to do and when to do it, while the humans, lacking many of the animal instincts, had to figure out a lot of things for hirself. Hence the animals appeared blessed with a godly knowhow far superior to the human stumbling. Thus Men learned how to function and live by observing the animal(s as) teachers.
The animal master at Lascaux is a combination animal (i.e. combines different animals) and is also part human. The human is inside of the animal. This is a symbolic expression of early Men experiencing hir own personality in projection on this animal god. Men was doing the deeds at that time, what hesh projected onto this 'animal-god master'.
A:We do not know the steps. Maybe there were no steps, but we do know from the Babylonian and Egyptian cultures that Men's gods were turning human (theriomorphism?). The Egyptians had gods with animal heads, the Greeks still had a god with a bird body and human head (The Cyrenes that sang so well, but would rip a man apart on contact!) and Men could be turned into animals.
There is also the whole tradition of masks and costumes, showing transitional potential between Men and animal. The most striking example I saw was an Eskimo mask showing the human (face) emerging from the animal nature as depicted by the bird head surrounding the human head. Voila- Men emerging as a person.
A:There is no specific step, but the Greek mythology as we know, shows that the Greeks in their culture, thought of Men as Men and as we think of ourselves... But there still are traces of monsters (Cyclops) and animals (Cirrus, Cyrenes, the Augias stable's animal mess that needed cleaning indeed!).
The other tradition that breaks with 'animal gods' is the Semitic-Judean one, which is intertwined with the Egyptian- Babylonian traditions. The latter appear as the antagonists to the emerging concepts of Judean gods that assist Men in distress. i.e. give meaning to Men's live even in marginal conditions.
A:The ideas of the Greco-Roman-Judean traditions and religions merged into christianity, melding into a defined religion by the year ca. 400 CE. A short time after that, ca. 650 CE, a second similar religion emerged in the form of the Islam.
Both religions, (mythologies that are alive; belief systems) have as their center piece the emerged human personality, that has to be brought to adult personhood with Jesus and Mohammed as projected (= divine) prototypes.
A:It is defensive; (because: see fundamentalism, seeking renewal, internal division below).
A:Symbols wear out overtime like cloths or wine skins as the bible shows. This is so because a symbol at the start is always the projection of all that we think is positive about something. (Being a human adult person in this case.) The negative is neglected, rejected, ignored and if it won't go away, it is persecuted and exterminated- literally!
This leads to conflict, suffering and teaches us that, with the positive, the negative comes also. Finally we learn the reality about our projection (symbol), the shells fall off our eyes and we clearly see what is wrong. Such a process takes generations. (This makes it difficult to spot).
The energy that can no longer be absorbed by the faulty symbol now flows back and revives earlier symbols, all these will also be rejected, but this regressive process brings all the old things back to life, so that we can construct unconsciously, as happened in the past, a new symbol system. I suggest we work this process consciously now that we are starting to grasp its nature.
A:The modern and old world religions need to come to terms with the fact that there is one earth and one race: the human race. There is no room any longer for exclusivism or elitism.
We must share this world and our belief systems. If we don't we won't succeed, i.e. we will fall back to a lower level of civilization through strive and destruction. This could go on for hundreds of years, until we think the better of it through the suffering factor.
Of course what will urge some people on is the seduction by the Hero Triumphant. This figure, the victorious personality, this symbol needs to be defeated first. Still too many of us follow it under different banners.
Religion could play an important role in drawing humanity together as we emerge from the great adventure of having gained consciousness about ourselves and the world around us. This is Men's gift to this universe, from this universe, for this universe. Let's not loose it. End CAT-VI
A:As a person we live to enrich our experience, and to enjoy life.
A:In a way yes, all the other things are side effects in a way. They come about because human nature is very complex. One man's/ woman's enjoyment, at times, turns out to be another person's pain and sorrow. Then we need to make rules about that behaviour, so both people have room to live and enjoy. We must live in a society, so there are limits set on our personal lives. We also need to serve the society we live in.
A:We serve society by making contributions to it, such as having children, or by properly discharging our responsibilities in our jobs, not taking advantage. The people in public life serve society, if and when they do not take advantage. Living the life of a symbol in society, like being the president, is in many ways a sacrifice of personal development for that person.
Many jobs have an inherent danger that they misdirect personal development. The striving for success, money, sex, all those things easily become a goal to which other values are made subordinate.
Then later, a person needs to 'dis-experience' the value of those over valued beliefs. That can be very painful; i.e. not- winning the gold medal in the olympics. But remember, there are many more non winners then winners. The value of the winners is only supported by those who don't win, which makes them of equal value. No winner without a loser. Rather we need to ask: "Why do I so strongly identify with the winner?"
A:My explanation is that we need support for our still not fully independent personality. It is true that we experience the exhilaration of the win with the winner, through identification or projection. That is normal.
What is not normal, but is sort of a weakness, is that we have no appreciation for all the people that did not win. Not only are that, even for the one winner, there many others that helped him/her get there. It was not the individual effort alone, but we make it look like that to convince ourselves that it might have been/ could have been me that won.
A:It is a model, created by society, up held by society and its members as the approved way to be, "This is how society wants you to be'. That is what the Hero model's message is. Yet for the person that has acted out this role, (was trapped in it maybe), this achievement has been realized by paying a very high price of very narrow and concentrated effort for many years, and denial of many other attractions.
A:No, it is not. It is much better to discard the hero roles that society serves on its members and pursue a balanced development of the personality for each person and serve society on a daily basis. There is a need to strike a balance between mutual interests, that is the personal development and development of society. The group and the personal interests need to be in mutual balance.
A:A person develops mainly through experience and learning from and thinking about that experience.
A:We can learn from others if and when we accept their authority. We all know that as we grow older, we accept less and less authority in our lives, except by force or by experience. Some experience is passed on by the generations, and is anchored in an ultimate authority so as to not to be questioned. That is/was Job's struggle, and Moses' dispute with Allah.
We can learn from the experience of others, but that is usually only when we recognize that impersonal, objective forces are at play in a certain situation. A man with a gun is authority for a while, but not forever because he needs to eat, sleep, go to the washroom; when the next man /woman takes over, his authority becomes divided. That is in itself a law right there.
There are many such inevitable things in life. They have a certain authority that we must acknowledge. We learn about them through experience and won't take some one else's word for it!
A:Suppose there is an earthquake, or an avalanche. This event kills no one, except a little field mouse. Is the event a tragedy? Not for me, but it is for the mouse! Should we stop all avalanches? Of course not! They are a process of nature.
So were the meteorites that struck the earth twice over to wipe out a large part of the living species, before Men lived. A disaster is the hand of god? Or the process of nature, that happened unintended?
My answer is a question. There are two options. If the process of nature is the acknowledged cause, I am now conscious of the fact that my life is more or less an accident that came about by nature and could be taken away by it. It is me alone in the universe of unforeseeable events. If that is too much to accept, I construct 'the hand of god', that punishes me and my society for things done that I know of, and thing undone that I have to guess at.
This still leaves me with uncertainty, now on god's action's part. But I can influence god through my deeds and promises and emotional commitments. The comet or meteorite could not care less.
So, what is the best choice for the human? To pray to god of course, the other guy has to work in day time to keep up with the Jones's and at night he has to watch the sky for the next comet. He will be a nervous wreck and die. So, until I can predict, identify and clobber the comet, I must pray to god, so that we will survive as a person and deal with and function in our world in a meaningful manner.
A:God is the keystone to the universe. The keystone that closes the arch. This creates the protection and provides the structure. Therefore god will always be there, because the universe and Men's own psyche can never be known by Men, only by god, but god needs men in order to become aware of it. And Men needs hir inner life to know about god.
End of Cat_VII.
End of the text of the catechism for the Third Millennium.