Playing God

Most people in our society enjoy playing god. We even teach our children how to play this game practically from the moment they are born. A person who plays god well is admired as a successful person, and the person who plays poorly is condemned and outcast from the social playing fields. What does it mean to play god? It is the simple act of pretending to judge the merits of other people and circumstances. Our entire culture is permeated with the paraphernalia of this game. Newspapers, TV, magazines, the Internet, are all primarily concerned with providing us with the superficial information that we need to play. We become addicted to this game at a very young age, so young that we typically cannot even remember a time when we did not judge every person we meet and every experience we have. To judge seems completely natural to us, and we typically feel the need to do so constantly. For most people sitting quietly for a few moments without judging something creates a strong sense of unease and anxiety. And like any sport, there are many different levels of play, from the amateurish judgement of backfence gossip, to the world impacting judgements of polititians and religious leaders. But no matter at what level we play, it is still just a game. To BE God is a completely different matter. To BE God is never a game. Each and every one of us has the ability to Be God, but very very few have the courage to do so. So we PLAY god instead. I'm playing god right now as I write these words. I am judging myself and other people's ability to play the game. It is not a conscious process for me, but at least I am conscious of it. I realize that I am playing god because I exhibit all the behavioral indicators of the game (and the addiction). First and foremost, I am engrossed in human language. The fact that I am using words is a primary indication that the game is being played. Human language has become one of the greatest facilities of the game. Not all human language is used for playing god. But generally speaking, the more a pesron's lips are moving (or pen) the more likely they are caught up in the game. This is especially true any time that words are used to form some sort of opinion, of course, even if that opinion is only vaguely implied (as I am doing now, by vaguely implying that I know what the hell I'm talking about!) Yet for all the pain and suffering that playing god entails, it is not “bad” or “wrong”. And while it certainly envokes “evil”, it is not evil in and of itself. Ultimately it is still only a game played by the children of God. It helps us to learn so we can grow up and someday take on the responsibility that comes along with Being God. As we mature we eventually begin to lose interest in the game, and naturally become more involved with the process of creation (which, of course, is an ongoing miracle). We do this because as we judge less we begin to understand (and hense love) more. Through understanding we aquire the ability to shape and change our world (and the universe). Pure understanding, uncontaminated with judgement, has the ability to create. But pure understanding requires complete non-judgement, a return to innocence if you will. This is also what it means to truly forgive, and be forgiven. A person who is BEING God does not need to judge. But, God lets His children judge themselves, so that they will know when they are ready to stop playing children's games and grow up, becoming One with Him. Though the game is one of judgement, we are not learning how to judge. We are learning how (and why) to not judge. We are learning how (and why) to forgive. Only by learning this lesson will our need to judge (and to play god) diminish. And, pretending that we know how to forgive (i.e. by judging first so we can then pretend to forgive) is just another way to play the game (one that seems particularily popular with the least mature children of god who frequently call themselves Christians). You will know when you have learned this lesson (how to not judge and to genuinely forgive), because you will at that moment realize that you ARE God! And it will be the most humbling realization you ever have!

See No Evil

There is no evil in nature other than the evil we imagine as human beings. We only imagine evil because we are fearful, and we are fearful because we ignore the one truth that perpetually offers itself as our salvation from an eternal life of evil. Religions frequently form around this truth. Some religions believe they must protect it. Others think they must spread it. But, no religion understands it, because if it did understand then it would know that the one saving truth is completely independent of our experience, and does not need to be protected, or spread, or even served. It only wants to be acknowledged (i.e. loved). And, as soon as we do acknowledge it in our heart of hearts, we are freed from fear, and from all forms of imagined evil. Acknowledgement (love) of the one truth is not something we do as an act of volition. We cannot choose to "love God". God chooses who will love him, and how that love will manifest. It is an event that occures as any other event in nature, as the result of an infinite sequence of circumstances that no human mind could ever begin to fathom. We pride ourselves on our knowledge of the Universe, but we have not yet even begun the understand. Evil is not real, not really. We invent it, and we create it. But in the end, the truth will destroy it, or rather, reveal the lie of it.

There Are No Lesser Evils

If someone hates hate, then they only hate themselves. True love loves hate, but any hate that is loved becomes love, not hate. To understand this, it helps to think of hate as darkness, which is simple the absence of light, which of course is love. So hate is no more real than a shadow, and neither is “evil”. We can experience a shadow with almost all of our physical senses, but when you think about it, shadows don't even exist! So, to hate hate, is like seeing a shadow, and creating an even bigger shadow in order to get rid of it! Of course you can't destroy a shadow with more shadow. Only light can destroy a shadow, but of course the light doesn't really destroy anything. It only changes the darkness into illumination! And so love changes hate into understanding, and “evil” into “good”. But “good” doesn't really exist either. Good is no more than a “non-shadow”, so it is common for people to mistake a bigger shadow that encompasses many smaller shadows, as something “good”, or perhaps “a necessary evil”. There is no such thing of course. Necessary evils only seem necessary to people who's hearts do not yet shine enough light to illuminate the darker experiences of their life (like me, for one).

How Intelligent Are We?

What if everything we think of as human intelligence is not really intelligent at all? What if we turn out to be one of the most ignorant species on our planet? Think about it. Isn't intelligence ultimately a measure of our ability to understand our environment and then use said understanding to propagate our existence? If so, then clearly humans are pretty dumb after all. We are destroying this planet with a voraciousness rivaled in nature only by malignant cancer. How intelligent is that?

The Right To Be Wrong

I have said that it was the realization that what I was doing was NOT wrong that caused me to stop killing and turn myself in. But this is not entirely true, or at least, it gives an impression that is not entirely true. So, let me contradict myself a bit, so I can make myself a little more clear. What I should have said was that I realized that what I was doing (i.e. raping and murdering children) was not wrong IN THE WAY THAT I THOUGHT IT WAS WRONG at the time. But it certainly was wrong in another way that I previously did not suspect, and I “realized” this at the same time as well. It was not wrong because it was perverse, or unnatural, or morally corrupt. I needed it to be wrong in those ways in order to justify what I was doing. Only if what I was doing was an affront to “human decency” would my actions deliver the blow they were intended to deliver to the heart of The Beast that I thought was my mortal enemy. I needed my crimes to be socially condemned in order for them to be justified. I realize that the concept that social condemnation directly attributes to anti-social behavior is a difficult one for most people to grasp. So, I won't even try to expound on it here, since others far more astute than I have already done so many times in numerous books. But, the converse realization. That what I was doing WAS wrong in another unexpected way, is much simpler to express. I realized that I had no right to impose my beliefs (or my “trip” as Timothy Leary would say) onto other people! This is such a simple and basic truth that it seems so completely obvious once you realize it. And yet it is also the easiest truth to rationalize away, as most of us do, one way or another. So, that's what I realized was “wrong” about what I was doing. But, I should note that nothing is ever “wrong” in any absolute sense. I realize now that it is only possible for me to know what is “wrong” for me, and me alone. That is why the above realization - that I must not impose my “trip” on others - is so important. Because I cannot possibly know what is “wrong” for someone else. But, that's essentially just saying the same thing; we all have the right to be wrong ourselves, but not the right (or ability) to judge wrong in others.

Release Day

Ignorant fear mongers will do doubt claim that by refering to my execution as a release day I am merely denying the reality of my circumstances. But, whose reality am I denying? In my reality, which is to say, in my experience, death is no more than another step in life. By calling it a release I am denying nothing, but embracing death's true form by using a term better suited to its purpose and effect. For those who have never been to the edge of the world, a world with edges is all they know. And, for those who have never been to the edge of life, a life with death is all they know. It is only this delluded reality that I reject by calling death what it more truly is: a release, and an opportunity to move on with life!

People Like Me

As long as society continues to demonize people like me there will continue to be people like me. I am a product of society's fear. As long as fear is allowed to dominate, people who spread fear will thrive. And, it does not matter from which side of the system they spread fear from, the result is always the same; people like me.