The current conditions in our lives affect our awareness-of-being. These conditions or problems are expression of our beliefs and values. They are the ones we acquired from others -- parents, society, and experience -- and the culprits responsible for our problems.
As far as we can determine, we're never completely free of our beliefs and values. We are always left with some toxic residue. This means we are always working in a perpetual state of toxic cleansing of our consciousness.
We are able, however, to remove enough toxicity to perceive ourselves and others without toxic distortions. This clarity is available to us whenever we desire to unlearn or transcend the beliefs and values that others taught us. In other words, we can participate in moments of clarity that are not dominated by our illusions.
The world that we know comes from what others have taught us. We believe in the sacrosanctity of language, religion, science, mathematics, family, education, and so forth, because others taught us to think and act according to these beliefs and values. And after awhile, we accept them as the only way for us to interpret ourselves, others, and the world.
Similarly, what do we really know about people we haven't interacted with? Not much. This means we are required to trust people who are either untrustworthy, dishonest or ignorant. And from our own personal experiences, we know that most people deliberately deceive themselves and others for their own self-aggrandizement.
We become so attached our beliefs and values that we're afraid to examine them. For example, many of us are afraid to discuss God. We get really agitated when this subject is introduced. Whenever God is discussed, we begin to claim that we know God because of the personal relationship we have with The Creator.
We continue ad-nauseam with stories of how God helped us overcome difficulties in our lives. Some of us even go so far as to claim that God "called us" to preach to others. Nevertheless, we have all sorts of explanations to support our beliefs in God.
Let's discuss God. What do we know personally about God that we didn't learn from others. Do we know where God is at this moment in time. Where exactly is Heaven? Have our Scientists discovered Heaven in the universe? Is Heaven our permanent home. Have we been there before? If so, then it's temporary, because now we're in this world.
So what all this means is that we must have faith in what others teach us. We must believe they possess some spiritual powers that are absent in us. What is clear in this discussion is that the human-created God of Augustine, Aquinas, Kierkegaard, Whitehead, the spiritual writers, and so forth isn't an accurate description of God.
For us to know God was said best by Jesus and Buddha, in different words, but meant the same thing, that we must first be "born again" in an awareness-of-being that's not dependent on the beliefs and values created by others. We must be transformed in our own unconditioned consciousness.
Meanwhile, we can't claim to know God, and believe we are powerless. This is a contradiction. It's also a contradiction for us to have faith in God's power, but not in our own power. If we are truly "children of God," then why are we so spiritually powerless.
We are powerless because of our beliefs and values. And this dependency on them prevents us from having a vision of ourselves that's free of what others have taught us.
It's important for us to always remember that we are greater than our current awareness-of-being. And to remember that for us to communicate successfully with God, we must first overcome what others have taught us about ourselves and our worthiness to have power.
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