Once you become an amputee, its really not that bad: http://www.ted.com/tedtalks/tedtalksplayer.cfm?key=d_gilbert
Brother, tell us the truth. Set us free. You have the truth, else you would not know if it were being "embellished". So, tell us the unembellished truth about the topic on hand, without detraction, and without leading anyone astray. Tell it without depressing us, or deceiving us. Pray tell us brother! If you will not, then I will tell it. Why won't an "amputee" heal himself? Why won't you offer him help? Why do you assume God has not given help? What is your goal here? What function are you assigning to me that "sucks" when I do not fulfill it? What function do you give to our Father that bothers you when He does not fulfill it? In other words, what are you trying to prove? Do you really want to lead the camp that accuses me of the modern version of blasphemy (ie. "Vanilla Ice", "huckster") because I say I am the "Son of God"? What do you care about "Jesus" after all? What are you trying to protect your brethren from? Jesus
Erm well , on one greedy little hand you say "you are everything" and on the other greedy little hand you say "If you want to see something else, you must first desire something else.If you want to see Heaven, you must desire it. Faith will follow...then vision." So why when one is everything would one want to reach, see, or desire heaven..... "overreach" mean anything to you? First there must be a hand but there must not be a hand. Oh dear. What can exist beyond everything?? Well, according to you , "we" are everything, and heaven exists beyond. Perhaps you hadn't noticed the looking glass in which you stare, or the cable attached to the back of your head.. As you are the monkey who is saying "you are everything" , but still should reach to see or desire something else you name as heaven , I suggest you let go the nut. You make it rather obviously clear the proverbial nut is actually an "idol" you are symbolizing as God and heaven. And omnipotence is no such thing if +1 cannot be added to it, therefore Gilbert. You don't have to reach or desire much at all to see that. What is incoherence but bullshit by another name. "What can be different from magnitude?" Well, magnitude +1 is different. "What can be longer than eternity?" Well, eternity +1 is longer. "who can be perfectly free and wish to be even more free?" um , someone who is not perfect. "for who can be united and wish to go beyond perfect unity?" um, God. It is supposed to be united in a trinity, but wants to be worshipped too. "Who needs to be more free but a slave?" um, someone about to be murdered. "for who can be rich and think he lacks anything" um, a rich person who lacks something. just luv silly quizzes Are you sick? No offence but you sound sick. Then take your own advice dude. Stop the pretence and and let go the nut. In your case , it's clearly an idol you are calling God. It's not Gilbert. Gilbert is merely the result of whatever God+1 is. stu
Heaven is your home and natural state. To see something else, you must have desired it. The question is, have you seen enough? If so, here is the way back home...how to get out of a bit of a jam. To see something other than reality, you must invent something a bit odd: perception. Perception is what can be "seen" after adding + 1 to real vision. Perception is not true sight...but it is what you want if that's how you are "seeing". I am suggesting that you really don't want it. In a world of perception, for example, you can "see" what it's like to be missing a hand. This is symbolic. While playing with such scenarios, you are "missing" from reality, and reality is not complete without you as you were created. The overreaching "hand" cannot really exist any more than a "dream home" other than your real home. Dream homes are small relative to your real home. So are dream hands. Heaven exists "within", as in, "the Kingdom of God is within you". In other words, there is nothing outside you. A "hand" is outside you...beyond everything...where nothing exists. Anything that can be changed or destroyed is not real. The cable symbolizes how the mechanics of perception work. It is deceptive on a grand scale. Most do not realize that what they see is what they want and nothing else. They think that things "happen" to them, when in fact, nothing can "happen" to a Son of God without his will...and you are a Son of God. To think otherwise is to perpetuate a grand game of pretend...like going to a masquerade party and identifying with the mask. That is why the first step in salvation- the healing of the mind - is to take responsibility for everything you "see" and experience. This is why we can not assume anyone wants to be healed of anything right now though they may complain of injustice, fraud. I am explaining how to follow the "cable" to it's source so that what you see and experience can be turned from a nightmare to a happy dream on the way home. This is how an amputee would be healed without surgical magic. But does he want to see the cable attached to the back of his head? There are no "shoulds", nor any "thou shalt nots". You are a Son of God and no one tells you what you should do, not even our Father. The emphasis is on will and desire. I am informing you that your true will is to see heaven, and it is more powerful than your wish to see something "beyond" everything. Why wait? Yes, idols are given attributes and called "god". I am just explaining what is the result of grabbing for the "special" instead of accepting equality....what "happens" when creation thinks it can usurp it's Creator. The result is a strange world in which all your creations act like they want to get the better of you. It's a dog eat dog world. Only in such a world can you "lose" a hand...or anything else. Only in such a world can you "gain" anything that you did not have before. Jesus
If the whole cult leader thing doesn't work out, at least you'll be good for a job teaching rhetoric at some community college. I won't give you the satisfaction of pretending we are two gurus sparring. I, for one, never claimed to be a guru, and you are a schmuck on a message board with nothing better to do than bullshit people. What 'sucks' is that you pollute an interesting discussion with your cheesy sanctimonious blather. You are just a different flavor of troll -- certainly more unique than the standard variety, but a troll nonetheless. When I say that the truth is more than what you offer, I am not talking about some divine secret I hold in my hand. It is you who wants to make tranquility and peace of mind into some cosmic whirlygig of guru hackdom, because you are deluded or malicious or bored or all three. As for what truth I possess: I have read enough, thought enough, and walked enough paths to have figured out a few things. Nothing more exciting than that. I can taste the difference between good fruit and bad fruit. And I can spot completely shite arguments when I see them. You would think the living logos would have a little firmer grasp on logic, and not be puking up glaring fallacies in almost every post. As for serving up truth and where to find it: there are plenty of worthwhile books out there. Insightful people have been thinking about this stuff for a good while now. The best books will all tell you, in one way or another, that books can only serve as a starting point. The internal journey requires effort and time, no different than hiking a mountain or walking many miles. This is just a common sense observation. Many have made it before me. I am in no way a guru for sharing this. Enlightenment is not earth shattering. If anything it is the opposite. Before enlightenment: chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment: chop wood, carry water. Shunryu Suzuki: "Before you attain it, it is something wonderful, but after you attain it, it is nothing special." What you offer is neither practical nor insightful nor useful. That leaves aesthetic value. What you offer has no aesthetic value because your schtick is so bloody annoying. So in essence, I think it sucks that your particular brand of trolling is messing up a thread I was otherwise enjoying. Little more. And, while I'm not sure I consider them my brethren, I have feelings of compassion for those who are sucked in by your bullshit -- partially because I suspect that the real you, the guy behind your Jesus schtick, is as cynical as anyone else here and knows exactly what you are doing. I sense that you are one of those people who like to shit in a river or dump battery acid in a stream, as Lou Reed might say, just because you have nothing better to do.