Ancient Japanese Gods

After a few trips to Japan, I have become more fascinated with the culture and mindset of the Japanese people. It began with a playful interest in Anime. Now it is an obsession with an entire people. I’ve found that kanji and Shinto help me to understand some aspects of the Japanese that seem incomprehensible to a Western mind.

In Japan, majority of populace is seen as worshipping ‘The Seven Gods of Luck’ – Shichifukujin. These seven Gods of luck epitomize fortune, luck, longevity, popularity, dignity, magnanimity, candor and wealth. Here is a quick description of ‘Seven Lucky Gods’-

Bishamon – Revered Bishamon is considered as the God of war. He is the son of Izanagi. It is a general belief that Lord Bishamon shields good natured people from evil spirits/ demons. Some consider him to be the ancestor of divine Japanese emperors.

Daikoku – So far as fortune and money matters are concerned, Daikoku is considered as the God of luck. People who desire handsome wealth worship him. He is also considered as the God of hard work which means that he rewards people who are earnest and hard working.

Ebisu – This God is revered primarily by sailors, fishermen and those who are engaged in the food industry. Someone who worships Ebisu will have plenty of tasty food to eat.

Hotei – Referred to as the God of good health and abundance, Hotei is popular with all classes of people, primarily with bartenders.

Benzaiten – Goddess of art, beauty and knowledge, Benzaiten is most popular amongst writers, musicians and artists.

Jurojin – Considered as the Lord of wisdom and longevity, Jurojin is most popular with scientists and teachers.

Fukurokuju – Considered as the Lord of longevity, health and happiness, Fukurokuju is known to possess the power that can revive the dead.

Kami-no-michi or Shinto is the indigenous/original spirituality of Japan and its people. The practices of Shinto were first codified in written historical records of Niho Shoki and Kojiki in the 7th – 8th century. As of today, the term ‘Shinto’ applies to shrines suiting war memorials, historical monuments, harvest festivals etc. There are many different types of Shinto expressions with each one having its own history and significance.

Amidst demons and Dragons, there are many endearing Japanese Gods. Here is a brief description about some of the chief ancient Japanese Gods:

Izanagi – Also referred to as ‘The God of the Sun’, Izanagi is known to possess cosmic energies and superhuman strength. She had many children who later on became valleys, mountains, rivers and other such physical features. It is held that Izanagi died while giving birth to Kagutsuchi, the fire God.

Amatsu Mikaboshi – Referred to as the God of stars and evil, Mikaboshi is the true guardian of hell. He is denoted by Fuzen – the sin. It is believed that Amatsu existed prior to the creation of the universe. He is supposed to be an evil force who thinks humans as utterly sinful. With the supernatural powers bestowed upon him, he can change his shape and form with ease.

Hinayasu-hiko – Referred to as the God of the earth, Hinayasu-hiko cares for human beings immensely and genuinely, though it is said that he does not express his love for them.

Apart from this, there are many other chief Gods and Goddesses of Japanese whom the people hold in high reverence.

When the singularity comes, infinity will be our collective bitch!

If human consciousness can really leave the body and operate without a brain then everything we know in neuroscience has to be questioned. If people could really gain paranormal knowledge then much of physics needs to be rewritten. This is what is at stake. Add to that the fact that most people in the population believe in some kind of life after death, and many desperately want it to be true, then you have a strong case for this research – even if the chances of success are vanishingly small. — Susan Blackmore (guardian)

I’ve got great news!! Science now knows for an absolute fact that we are the only intelligent life in the universe (so we are the center of the known universe), there is absolutely NOTHING faster than the speed of light, we know the exact moment of the big bang, there is no God, and you have no “soul”. Isn’t that awesome! There are no mysteries!

Whoo-hoo! Now I can sleep at night. All knowledge has been acquired.. our quest it over. Charles Darwin & Einstein figured it all out so we can now build churches in their names. ha!

All sarcasm aside, as awesome as science is We (the human race) don’t know shit! We really really don’t. We don’t even know 1% of shit.

Don’t jump to conclusions, I am not a creationist and I don’t’ subscribe exclusively to any ONE religion or philosophy. I am someone who believes that there is some value in religion, philosophy and science. I respect and use each of their strengths in all parts of my life where they are relevant (i.e. I don’t use science to help me explain philosophy or religion to help me explain how light works.

The great thing about science is that is grows and evolves despite the conservative establishment that see it as some sort of dogma. What I like about science is that it gets better. The theories no matter how great continue to develop the complexity and order needed to describe more of what we do know. Intrepid mavericks like Galileo, Descarte, Newton and Einstein challenge the status quo and go off the beaten path and into the previously unknown.

I think there are a lot of unexplained phenomenon that deserves our full attention and funding. One thing that bothers me about mainstream scientists is there dogmatic response to the improbable. It makes them sound as one-dimensionally boxed in as your average religious fundamentalist.

I suppose we all have our limits of what we can accept as real. Even Einstein fought the fundamental (probabilistic) ideas of quantum mechanics that are now not only fully accepted but proven and used.

For me the mystery is the beauty of our 99.999999 percent unknown universe. The conquest of each piece of this infinity puzzle is pure orgasmic rapture.

To that unknown, I say bring it on! When the singularity comes, infinity will be our collective bitch!

Ignorance is Our Only Enemy

Nations go to war for greed, fear, ‘protection of assets’ and sovereignty. Neighbors argue and feud over domestic issues and friends sever over misunderstandings. Confrontation seems an essential part of human nature. Evolutionist would say conflicts and aggression has been necessary to the survive as a species, and creationist would say the conflicts is how God sometimes tests and teaches us.

Regardless of belief, faith or scientific method our real enemy is ignorance. No matter how foul our nemesis, whether terrorist, communist, imperialist and no matter what tactic “they” choose nothing will defeat “us” like our own ignorance.

Wisdom favors untainted facts. But too often a nation, a man, a woman, an organization, an establishment chooses to build up their wisdom on myths, half-truths and bias; a house of matches in the middle of a forest fire. The real enemy is our own ignorance. Any perceived enemies are only the puppets and pawns of ones own master, ignorance.

Even forces of nature and states of human suffering are not the enemy. Famine, poverty, sickness can all be defeated with the proper knowledge of “how”. What defeats us is lack of knowledge, ignorance.

The human species is capable of knowing but we project our enemies outside of our selves. The real enemy is within… it is ignorance. There is not a single person, place or thing, no force of nature more cruel and unforgiving as our own unchecked ignorance.

Why do we continue to serve this callous master? Sufferings seems limitless and our ignorance is no excuse. Above all hypothesis, and bias, and prejudging assumptions and long held beliefs, factual information is the greatest ally of humanity.

think out side the god-box

We can not even say or write the word “God” “Allah” “Yahweh” “Jehovah” without being immediately wrong.

Perhaps, one day theists and atheists will be able to agree on that statement. Because if your a believer and you think that God is infinite than you can understand that there is no way a finite mind can understand it. So words about the infinite are meaningless. And if your an Atheist you don’t believe in a creator at all so the words point to nothing.

There is no God but no-thing.
It is the ultimate contradiction such that we can only look in awe at the mere concept of infinity. It is something literally beyond belief because it is completely beyond logical understanding. So nothing at all can be said about it that is either true or false.
To look at the mere concept of it too long through the lens of rational thought is suicide and madness like staring directly into the sun. Just ask mathematician Georg Cantor.

Its fair to say that what ever event, situation, point, being, incident, accident created us, is our “creator”. For a true skeptic, “creator” is perhaps too much to commit to, but it is fair to say some phenomenon started what we are now experiencing. Language and mathematics can only go so far in explaining the phenomenon because no matter how accurate and/or beautiful it sounds, it is still just a symbolic representation of what is really going on. Symbols and language are our revolutionary methods of interfacing, but also the walls that box us into our filtered little worlds for this reason the wise realize that they really don’t know much of anything.

Whether you are atheist or true believer or somewhere in between we can all agree that something or nothing we can currently understand began what we now experience. We are the seeds of that amazing occurrence; we are the fruits of something (nothing?) that originated time/space matter and energy. We are of something that is much greater than matter, space, time, energy. Why shouldn’t we access that greatness? A better question is How can we?

The Universe Allows Extinction and Genocide
I watched a movie called “Sometime in September”. It is a very sad and moving movie about what happen in Rawanda in the ’94 in which nearly 1 million Tutsi’s and moderate Hutu’s were killed. The most power part for me is when the Hutu extremist sought to divide up a girls Catholic school by Tutsi & Hutu and the girls told them “We are sisters” and died together.

The movie made me think of other atrocities such as slavery and the holocaust. I thought of the 6 million Jews that were killed in Nazi Germany and about all the genocides and extinction level events that have been successful in this planets history. It is clear to me that there is some natural order of things that does not respect any individual, group or species. But the irony is that the human mind at its full potential could really survive and/or conquer most of natures destructive events (including our very own self-destructive tendencies). I don’t believe that Rawandan genocide had to happen (and could have definitely been stopped quickly), the holocaust did not have to happen, and humanity does not have to self-destruct or be taken out by catastrophic events.

Unfortunately, our greatest fault is that we (as a species) do not value life enough. We value our OWN lives (little egos) but can not usually see too far beyond that. I’m sure it will be different one day, but currently, we are a species that values our own egos over life itself and that is very sad. Life is the most valuable commodity on this earth.

We are the miracle we have been looking for. There is no God but the light of life shining within each of us. The body dies but life is an energy subtle enough to be called “nothing” that can neither be created or destroyed. We are that.

The Gospel of the Second Coming

Enlightening interview with UK spiritual and Gnostic author Timothy Freke. Timothy Freke has co-authored a number of books with Peter Gandy on Gnostic spirituality, including “The Jesus Mysteries” and their latest book “The Gospel of the Second Coming”. In addition he has penned shorter works aimed directly at personal enlightenment such as his book “Lucid Living”. This is an-in depth and fascinating discussion about Gnostic and Eastern spirituality in general, touching on all the inspiring as well as sometimes very controversial aspects of this subject matter. Required viewing for those curious about spiritual matters and the importance of it in our lives today, regardless of your own personal background or beliefs.

communicating with God

If you want to communicate with God, learn to listen.

God is NOWHERE if not within us.

You are a receptacle of the most miraculous phenomenon in the universe… awareness. The lord is closer than the air you breathe and can not be contained in words, ego, or reason. No matter how beautiful and eloquently they package God, religions, philosophies and art can only point to the Lord with symbols. The true living God is within you right here, right now, always.

Ego is what we use to interface with our worldly surroundings. It is necessary, but unnecessarily worshipped in human culture (particularly Western culture). It is put on a pedestal and inflated like a fool’s balloon animal. An inflated ego serves as a perfect wedge between you and the Lord within.

God is infinity with no center, no beginning, no ending, no edges, no-thing, it is you, it is me, it is us and it is listening all the time to our words, to our hearts, and to our souls.

We are the vessel through which “God” is made manifest. It is manifest via our faith while our faith is manifest via our actions.

The lord not only listens from within you, it speaks from within too. If you will listen and allow it, you will know the answer to anything you ask. Knowing the answers is easy. The hard part is taking the right action because we often betray ourselves.

The trick is to tune in to the signal. After you learn to be quiet and listen, you will begin to separate the signal from the noise without even trying.

Psycho-energetic Powers of the Human Species: Intro

I have read a few accounts of people with amazing abilities. Abilities such as being two places at once (bilocation), telepathy, healing and other incredible phenomenon. Now since the majority of these “miracles” are hearsay, science and the more credible brain trusts of Western culture, tends to marginalize or even ridicule the mere mention of such claims.

But it seems ignorant to discount ALL these things when they are reported all over the world in almost every language, culture and religion. Like the UFO phenomenon, I would think that the shear volume of credible witnesses with such claims would peak more interest. Both science and religion are proper to their respective forms. Science from the beginning denies anything and everything until the bitter end. Religion no longer kills people for being heretics but they have a trump card that defeats followers every time. If they disagree with something that is taking convert away than “its evil”.

I believe that both science and religion are wrong about these powers that the human species seem to possess. Orthodoxy mainstream science is wrong in discounting the phenomenon and some major religions are wrong in claiming exclusive rights to the phenomenon and/or condemn it as “evil”.

Now I don’t want to generalize. Not all credible scientist discount all supernatural phenomenon and not all religions condemn and/or claim exclusive rights.

Perhaps these things are not “supernatural” at all, but a natural part of normally dormant abilities. We call them supernatural and magical because we don’t understand the true “nature” of reality. I hope that one day we will have an understanding that will place phenomenon such as bilocation on the same level as rational thinking and talking. These are also amazing abilities we have but we don’t call them supernatural

No truth, no meaning — words betray us

We often ask: why are we here? What is the meaning of life?

Some people have the answer to this. They express it in their religion or philosophy or reasoning. But I think that our language structures betray us. Perhaps our reasoning, meaning and philosophical understandings are the very cages that keep us from any deeper realization of something beyond us.

Any concept we create becomes an idol hindering us from the true expression of something beyond anything we can even pretend to comprehend. Something so incomprehensible that it renders everything we think we know about life and death meaningless and irrelevant. Often we get caught up and swept away by the words and dogma. We settle for our concepts of God rather than something beyond any type of superficial description or noble language adorned with wise quotes from this or that book.

As a species, that is where we are and right now all we can do is understand things how we understand things, but I am certain we are as small as a one celled organism in a petri dish being examine by something incomprehensible.

p.s. when i say beyond god, I’m addressing the fact that we need to address our concept of what it is. We need to realize that our concepts no matter how grand or clever do not even come close to what maybe beyond.