I am just a bridge. I am not a shining monument of human technology crossing miles of ocean or connecting great cities. I am small, wooden, and rather inconspicuous connecting one small path to another. I might be difficult to find for unfamiliar travelers. There are no signs pointing the way. I can be circumvented although doing so might prolong the journey or make it more difficult. I am of no specific importance to anyone.
I am just a bridge. I connect to pieces of the path together. I am neither here nor there. I cannot move forward, yet neither can I go back. I am umoving, yet impermanent. I facilitate the journey for fellow travelers, yet have never seen the destination.
I am just a bridge. When my purpose here is done... when the soul I am purposed for finally crosses my rotting planks, I will fall into the flowing stream of consciousness. This stream to which I have been so close for so long, yet unable to touch, sparkling with light. I have been looking into this stream of consciousness my entire life. Unable to let go of the path behind me or before me and unable to move in either direction.
I am just an old wooden bridge. I blend into my surroundings. I reach towards the past and the future, but stay anchored in the present. I look forward to the day that I can no longer hold on; to the day when I no longer have to. When I can re enter the unbroken flow of thought and awareness and join the Source of my existence.
Until then, I am content and grateful to be just a bridge. One of countless facilitators for even more countless soul journeyers. To have a purpose... a specific purpose... to be a bridge.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Dog
I've heard many people say that animals do not have souls. Others have admitted that they do, but that they are not as advanced as ours. This just simply cannot be true. Allow me to explain my reasoning.
In Genesis, The International Version, it says after God created Man:
I can understand that. We need the animals and plants to survive. What it doesn't address is that the animals and plants do not need us. As George Carlin said, "The planet will shake us off like a bad case of fleas. A surface nuisance." Of course, he's talking about the entire planet and the ridiculously egocentric opinion that we, as a species, will kill it. Personally, I believe that we will kill ourselves long before we are able to destroy Earth. 100 years after humans are gone, there will be little evidence that we ever existed.
So let me get back to the reason for this post in the first place. My brother drove me and my dog Xena to the vet today. Xena was old, tired, and worn, and I decided to let her go today. To comfort me, my brother said that he believes that dogs have souls and that their souls return to God. He also said that a dogs soul was more primitive than ours. I've been thinking about this.
We can teach dogs to sit, speak, shake and other stupid little tricks. But really, in the great scheme of things, what are we truly able to offer them. Nothing. God didn't place the animals here so that we could raise their spirits to Him. He put them here to raise ours! The years I was blessed with Xena taught me love, compassion, worship, humility, trust and more. I was able to see examples of those lessons from God through Xena. I was able to teach her to sit, speak, lay down and shake hands for a treat. Big deal!
Her presence in my life brought me closer to God. How could I possibly believe that her soul is in any way less important or more primitive than mine?
In Genesis, The International Version, it says after God created Man:
28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."
29 Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food." And it was so.
I can understand that. We need the animals and plants to survive. What it doesn't address is that the animals and plants do not need us. As George Carlin said, "The planet will shake us off like a bad case of fleas. A surface nuisance." Of course, he's talking about the entire planet and the ridiculously egocentric opinion that we, as a species, will kill it. Personally, I believe that we will kill ourselves long before we are able to destroy Earth. 100 years after humans are gone, there will be little evidence that we ever existed.
So let me get back to the reason for this post in the first place. My brother drove me and my dog Xena to the vet today. Xena was old, tired, and worn, and I decided to let her go today. To comfort me, my brother said that he believes that dogs have souls and that their souls return to God. He also said that a dogs soul was more primitive than ours. I've been thinking about this.
We can teach dogs to sit, speak, shake and other stupid little tricks. But really, in the great scheme of things, what are we truly able to offer them. Nothing. God didn't place the animals here so that we could raise their spirits to Him. He put them here to raise ours! The years I was blessed with Xena taught me love, compassion, worship, humility, trust and more. I was able to see examples of those lessons from God through Xena. I was able to teach her to sit, speak, lay down and shake hands for a treat. Big deal!
Her presence in my life brought me closer to God. How could I possibly believe that her soul is in any way less important or more primitive than mine?
Heaven, Hell and Original Sin
I've read of Original Sin; where Adam and Eve ate the fruit they weren't supposed to eat and God subsequently cast them out of the Garden of Eden. I've also read how Lucifer was cast out of Heaven as a traitor of God and into Hell, deep beneath the Earth.
The stories mentioned above suggest three separate physical places. I wonder if this is so. Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. Up to that point, they were ignorant of needless things such as want, shame or guilt. This "want, shame and guilt" among other human feelings destroyed their ability to see the Garden of Eden any longer. The Tree of Knowledge was misnamed in the Bible. As not only did it not provide the true Knowledge that every human is searching for, it infected the human race with a false knowledge.
I thinks it's possible that we are still in the Garden of Eden, but that we are too ignorant or afflicted by this false knowledge to see Eden for what it is. Nature. Spirit pulls me towards nature and beauty. Spirit shows me examples of perfection everyday. It is from there we can learn just as much as is written in ancient texts.
Hell, literally translated, means "Without God." I believe that any human who does not believe in Spirit, by whatever name they choose, currently lives in Hell. Many people who subscribe to atheism make very bad choices, and live lives that they are unhappy with. They are filled with these wants and needs simply because the basic necessity of the human soul (Spirit) has been cast out and denied.
It is impossible for any human to be purified while still residing in the body. When our bodies finally die, our soul is led to the Underworld (known to some as Purgatory), where we must be cleansed. In this Underworld, we are stripped of our pride, ego and false knowledge. We are shown our life and how we lived it. We are shown our mistakes and how we affected others. Before we are free to leave the Underworld, we must accept the ignorant, pathetic wretch of a person we once were. We must learn from our lives here on Earth. We must be able to understand the lessons that God placed before us. When we can do that, we can then accept Spirit fully and return home to be one with Spirit.
This idea leads me to ponder that we are surrounded by Heaven and Hell every single day. And as we go through our lives and learn the lessons placed before us, we are afforded glimpses of both all the time.
The stories mentioned above suggest three separate physical places. I wonder if this is so. Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. Up to that point, they were ignorant of needless things such as want, shame or guilt. This "want, shame and guilt" among other human feelings destroyed their ability to see the Garden of Eden any longer. The Tree of Knowledge was misnamed in the Bible. As not only did it not provide the true Knowledge that every human is searching for, it infected the human race with a false knowledge.
I thinks it's possible that we are still in the Garden of Eden, but that we are too ignorant or afflicted by this false knowledge to see Eden for what it is. Nature. Spirit pulls me towards nature and beauty. Spirit shows me examples of perfection everyday. It is from there we can learn just as much as is written in ancient texts.
Hell, literally translated, means "Without God." I believe that any human who does not believe in Spirit, by whatever name they choose, currently lives in Hell. Many people who subscribe to atheism make very bad choices, and live lives that they are unhappy with. They are filled with these wants and needs simply because the basic necessity of the human soul (Spirit) has been cast out and denied.
It is impossible for any human to be purified while still residing in the body. When our bodies finally die, our soul is led to the Underworld (known to some as Purgatory), where we must be cleansed. In this Underworld, we are stripped of our pride, ego and false knowledge. We are shown our life and how we lived it. We are shown our mistakes and how we affected others. Before we are free to leave the Underworld, we must accept the ignorant, pathetic wretch of a person we once were. We must learn from our lives here on Earth. We must be able to understand the lessons that God placed before us. When we can do that, we can then accept Spirit fully and return home to be one with Spirit.
This idea leads me to ponder that we are surrounded by Heaven and Hell every single day. And as we go through our lives and learn the lessons placed before us, we are afforded glimpses of both all the time.
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