What Pathways Believes
The Basics
Spirituality Without Dogma
Gerald L. "Moss" Bliss, D.D.
"Religions only look different if you get 'em from a retailer; when you go to a wholesaler, you find that they all have the same distributor."
"What is in your heart is more important than what is written in a thousand books."
"Kashmir Shaivism just means two words: ParamShiva - the Ultimate Reality. Call by any name. Anugraha (Divine Grace) - also called Shaktipath, the descent of grace. It is independent of human efforts. There is no third word."
Simple version:
God is One -- everything is God, is within God, and God made it the way it is.
or, in three parts:
1. Deity is One, Creator and Creation; the physical and metaphysical Universe and all within it is within Deity. Deity has one face, two faces (male and female), and many faces (gods, humans, Creation itself), depending on our current perceptions; the gods of all religions are merely faces of the One -- as are we ourselves. There is no "them", only "us".
2. It is our purpose to find Balance -- of Human and Nature, of Light and Shadow, of masculine and feminine, and of body, mind and soul/spirit/heart. We help guide ourselves and others to find this Balance; we allow ourselves, and help others, to grow -- in love of ourselves, each other, and the Deity we serve and are part of, and to be more whole within humanity and Deity.
3. Whatever path you follow, honor the paths of all others. Deity can be likened to a mountain, too large to be seen in totality and towering above the clouds; there are an infinite number of pathways up this mountain. We may journey alone or together, but whatever our experience of the mountain, it is valid.
That is all there is. There are many things that are obvious from the above; the following Corollaries are the most obvious to me.
Corollary One: There Is No Evil, there is only a range of experience. God experiences all things through God's creation, including emotions and actions. What we perceive as evil is a learning experience, and what we are learning is How To Love. For example, things such as "war", "hatred", "gay-bashing", poisoning our environment, hurting ourselves, etc., show we have not learned the lesson.
Sub-corollary - You cannot personify Evil - not as Satan, not as Hitler, not as your next-door neighbor...
Corollary Two: You Can Only Change Yourself, not the world/universe. We can only learn our lessons one person, one concept at a time. We cannot force others to learn OUR lessons. We cannot force them to learn THEIR lessons, either. If you can't find it within yourself, you won't find it outside.
Corollary Three: There Is No Hell, only different learning experiences. For some, Earth may be Hell; for others, the deepest Hell may be the finest University; and no Hell is permanent.
Corollary Four: We Do Not Die. God lives forever, and we are a part of That. Our mode of existence may change. It does not matter how that changes, our existence continues. What we believe beyond this is not worth fighting over - but is to be respected (see Rule 3).
Corollary Five: What Makes You Angry Shows Where You Need Work. There are things that caused us pain that have affected the way we think and feel about others. These need healing. If something makes you mad, it is something you don't like that you still keep yourself. If it's not within, you won't see it in others.
Final Comment: Anyone who attempts to use these precepts to prove anything except what is in their heart - can go to Hell (see Corollary Three). This is not intended as a substitute for Science, only as an overlay for global spirituality.
"I pledge Mother Earth as my one country
I pledge Humanity as my one people
I pledge Life as my religion
I pledge Love as my prayer
I pledge Peace and Freedom as my birthright
And the birthright of all humanity.
My heart beats one with all my Relations."
- Grandmother Drum Pledge
"We practice compassion through acts of forgiveness, releasing resentment, anger and hurt. We understand forgiveness when we realize that every act is either an expression of love or a call for love." - Mary Manin Morrissey
copyright ©2006 by Gerald L. "Moss" Bliss, D.D. Quotations are copyright by their authors. This document may be copied and distributed freely (without charge to you or the recipient) so long as it includes the entire document including this copyright statement.
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Monism
By Gerald L. Moss Bliss, D.D.
Monism. The "ism" of Oneness. It's the opposite of so many things, yet inclusive of all things. Monism is the concept that "GOD" is the Universe. God can neither be any greater nor more personal than that. (A larger perspective is that God includes the Universe, and is greater than even that. "The Universe is 1/3 of Siva." - Saiva Agamas) Rather than the pantheistic view that each of us contains a spark of God within us, the monist believes that each of us is a spark, or cell if you prefer, of God. God is not "in the rocks and trees": they are in God. God is your best friend, your cat, your favorite constellation... God is so vast that we cannot begin to understand it -- except that it includes, and very much loves, each of us. The Deists, who had a strong hand in the formation of the United States, would have us believe that their God created the Universe, got disinterested, and went away; the Monist knows there is only one location in the Universe, and it is God. The being designated by the word "God" has no gender (if you require a gender-free term and "God" doesn't do it for you, you are free to substitute "Deity" in appropriate places within this document).
"But you're a Pagan; all Pagans are polytheists!" The many gods and goddesses of the many and beautifully varied pagan pantheons are perhaps energy forms from the thoughts of God -- and so are we. They are still a part of the One That Is All. They exist to aid us in our search for meaning and existence and to energize creation. Many Hindus believe that there is only one soul, called "atman", and we all share this atman; our separateness, our individuality, is "maya", illusion. This is the simplistic version of it; what I have come to believe through long years of study and training. You are free to come to your own conclusions. (For many perspectives on this, please visit my forum, Faces of God - you will need to register with CornerBarForums, but registration is free.)
God was around a long time before names were invented, and human languages are just a blip on the radar screen of time. The oldest remembered name of God in a human language is Siva, and so that is what I call God if I need to use a name. I'm sure God doesn't mind what name you use; your own name works, since it identifies a visible part of God.
Is this too sweetness-and-light for you? I might have expressed a darker side of God at a different point in my life; but these statements are my present opinion.
My theological credentials are these: I am a 3rd Degree Wiccan, and I also hold Ministerial Ordinations in 5 Churches (Universal Life Church, Progressive Universal Life Church, Orderae Occultis, Temple of Wicca, and Pathways Sanctuary) including three Doctor of Divinity degrees. Most of that was hard-earned; the earliest of these ordinations was in 1983. I am studying Kashmir Shaivism (also called Trika Shaiva) under Sri Virendra Qazi.
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Quotations
"for inasmuch as you have done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." Matt. 34
~~~~
There is only one Self in all creatures.
The One appears many, just as the moon
Appears many, reflected in water.
The Self appears to change its location
But does not, just as the air in a jar
Changes not when the jar is moved about.
When the jar is broken, the air knows not;
But the Self knows well when the body is shed.
~~~~
The Tao may be known and observed
without the need of travel;
the way of the heavens might be well seen
without looking through a window.
- Tao Te Ching 47 (S. Rosenthal)
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God is not external to anyone, but present with all things, though they are ignorant that He is so.
- Plotinus
----
1. ALL was. ALL is. ALL ever shall be. The ALL spake, and Motion was, and is, and ever shall be; and, being positive, was called He and Him. The ALL MOTION was His speech.
2. He said, I AM! And He comprehended all things, the seen and the unseen. Nor is there aught in all the universe but what is part of Him.
3. He said, I am the soul of all; and the all that is seen is of My person and My body.
-- The Book of Jehovih, Chapter 1 (Oahspe - written by "automatic writing" to John Ballou Newbrough in 1882; for history buffs, this was probably the first ever "automatic writing" book written on a typewriter, and in finished form it was about 2/3 the volume of the Bible.)
~~~~
"Monistic philosophers including Parmenides, Democritus, Spinoza, Berkeley, Hume, Hegel, and proponents of contemporary atomic theory. The denial of monism forces commitment to either dualism or pluralism."
--The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
~~~~
\Mon"ism\, n. [From Gr. ? single.]
1. (Metaph.) That doctrine which refers all phenomena to a single ultimate constituent or agent; -- the opposite of dualism.
Note: The doctrine has been held in three generic forms: matter and its phenomena have been explained as a modification of mind, involving an idealistic monism; or mind has been explained by and resolved into matter, giving a materialistic monism; or, thirdly, matter, mind, and their phenomena have been held to be manifestations or modifications of some one substance, like the substance of Spinoza, or a supposed unknown something of some evolutionists, which is capable of an objective and subjective aspect.
2. (Biol.) See {Monogenesis}, 1. \Mon"ism\, n.
The doctrine that the universe is an organized unitary being or total self-inclusive structure.
Monism means that the whole of reality, i.e., everything that is, constitutes one inseparable and indicisible entirety. Monism accordingly is a unitary conception of the world. It always bears in mind that our words are abstracts representing parts or features of the One and All, and not separate existences. Not only are matter and mind, soul and body, abstracts, but terms as atoms and molecules, and also religious terms such as God and world. -- Paul Carus.
-- Webster's 1913 Dictionary
~~~~~
The atheistic scientist who devotes his strength and his life to the search for the truth, is freely credited with all that is evil; the theistic church-goer, who thoughtlessly follows the empty ceremonies of Catholic worship, is at once assumed to be a good citizen, even if there be no meaning whatever in his faith and his morality be deplorable.
This error will only be destroyed when, in the twentieth century, the prevalent superstition gives place to rational knowledge and to a monistic conception of the unity of God and the world."
- Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919) The Riddle of the Universe, 1900.
~~~~~
Sikh:
Shri Guru Granth Sahib: Section 01 - Jup - Part 002
O Nanak, know this well: the True One Himself is All. ||4||
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SPIRIT AND MATTER
From the scientific standpoint, spirit and matter are quite different from each other, but according to the philosophical point of view they are one.
Spirit and matter are different, just as water is different from snow; yet again they are not different, for snow is nothing other than water. When spiritual vibrations become more dense they turn into matter, and when material vibrations become finer they develop into spirit.
From: A SUFI MESSAGE OF SPIRITUAL LIBERTY, by Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan, London 1914
~~~~~
Hindu
You have agreed that you will die only because you have accepted from someone that you (as a separate entity) were born.
No one is born; no one dies. What is born is only a concept. There is no entity to be freed.
Not understanding this fact constitutes the bondage of ignorance; apperception of it is the freedom of truth.
----
"It matters not
Who you love
Where you love
Why you love
When you love
Or how you love
It matters only that you love."
John Lennon
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The Principle of Neo-Ahimsa
Many eastern religions teach the principle of Ahimsa. This means the non-harming of life. Even at best, it is not truly practicable, as life ebbs and flows by the moment. Sometimes to preserve your own life, you must kill other life -- bacteria or virii, as in colds or strep throat or pneumonia; plants and animals for a variety of reasons. Below are the principles I follow, which I now name "Neo-Ahimsa".
1. Do not seek to harm life. However, killing individuals -- whether microbal, vegetable, or animal -- removes nothing from the web of life, it only rearranges it. The spirit remains, the molecules remain, all may be reused by the web. Always thank them for their life and bless them to their ancestors.
2. Kill only for your personal safety, mercy, or food. Do not knowingly kill anything that would remove a species; do not kill more than you need to. I am not worth more than a cow, but neither am I worth less.
3. Within your own house, you may choose to keep certain life out (such as spiders or cockroaches). You bless them away from your house, you put out herbs and sounds to send them away. If they fail to heed these warnings, you may remove them or kill them, using the least potent force necessary. You may extend this principle to your gardens and fields, but not to the whole Earth. All creatures have their place, and all are part of God (Siva).
4. This is a practice, not a doctrine. It is up to each individual to define his use of Neo-Ahimsa, not a topic of debate among scholars. This comes from the heart, not the head or books.
There are repercussions to this. There are repercussions to everything. My actions may mitigate karmic responsibility, but do not remove it.
Gerald L. "Moss" Bliss, D.D. (as Zaivalananda)
June 5, 2005
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Easy Way for Worship
Life is complex nowadays,
Struggle is keen;
Here is an easy way
Of worshipping the Lord.
Consider your house
As a temple of the Lord,
Or Brindavan or Ayodhya;
Your wife, children and others
The holy company of Bhaktas [devotees].
Consider every word you speak
As the Japa [chant] of the Lord’s Name,
And the praise of the Lord;
Every action as service of the Lord.
Your lying in the bed,
As prostrations before the Lord;
Your daily walk and moving about
As perambulation of the Lord.
Consider the lights that you burn
In the evening
As waving lights to the Lord.
Consider sleep as Samadhi [meditative bliss];
Give the food as offering
To the Lord
And then take it as His Prasad [Holy Food].
You will attain happiness
Here and hereafter
If you worship God in this way.
Life is short, time is fleeting,
Start doing it right now.
Swami Sivananda
From Essence of Bhakti Yoga
(All comments in brackets are mine, and are intended to aid your understanding; I know not everyone knows the Sanskrit words. - Moss)
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This page is copyright ©2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009 by Pathways Sanctuary. Individual articles may be copyright Gerald L. "Moss" Bliss, D.D. Page Creation: March 4, 2004; Last Modified November 8, 2009.