DICTIONARY & ANECDOTES

CONSCIOUSNESS: Degree of awareness especially as compared to unconsciousness. The more one is observing, or discriminating, ones sensory receptions, the greater ones degree of consciousness, or awareness. Consciousness has a direct correlation with the degree of observation and an inverse correlation with the degree of noise one is receiving through ones senses.

The pursuit of "altered states of consciousness" are often stumbling blocks to enlightenment. Such pursuits are not of God, but are the desires of ones own self. To pursue altered states of consciousness is to seek after that which is temporary and deviant. The enlightened are more like those who are very aware of God at all times rather then those who purport to enter into altered states of consciousness from time to time.

Consciousness is like an iceberg. The visible portion of the iceberg above the water can be likened to the fiery plasma of the "awake" conscious mind whilst the portion below the water can be likened to the subconscious mind.

CONTENTMENT, WHAT IS? Harmony with one's environment without worry about the past or future. Contentment is peace, discontentment seeks peace. Thus, the feeling of discontentment is the desire to become content. Contentment comes from freeing oneself of desire to the temporary things and pursuits of this world. Such contentment is peace and piece of mind. It is the state of the enlightened. One might think it odd that someone freed from both pain and pleasure could feel joyous. However, being freed from pleasure does not mean one feels nothing, on the contrary, the state of being free from desire is bliss.

CONTROL: Control seems to be the overriding issue which separates the enlightened from the ignorant. As one is growing up, one spends so much time trying to gain control of oneself, ones environment, and ones future, that the inattainability of complete control may never enter ones mind. And yet, the truth is, one is never, nor will one ever be completely in charge of reality. To completely control reality is the pursuit of the Devil. God alone is in complete control of reality.

Surrendering control may seem outrageous, nevertheless, recognize and accept the things that one has no control over. When one boards a plane, for example, one surrenders control of the plane to the pilot. When one trusts the pilot, the ride is enjoyable, but if one does not trust the pilot and attempts to fly the plane from the coach section, ones plane ride will be pure terror, or traumatic. Surrender to God, the things that are God's to control.

Failing to accept that one is not in control of everything is the cause of all kinds of pain and fear. Ironically, when one surrenders to God the things that are God's to control, one is in more control of oneself and no longer has feelings of loss of control which creep into ones observations in the form of pain. Surrender to God is not the same thing as laying down to be slain, on the contrary, when one stops fighting against the truth, one becomes a part of it. When one joins the side of God, one has God on ones side.

Loss of control, or trauma, results in painful observations which in turn result in aberrant beliefs. The amount of control one has is directly proportional with the amount of free will one has.

CORE BELIEF: A belief upon which other beliefs are based. It is the root belief from which other beliefs grow. If a core belief is aberrant, then any belief which utilizes that core belief will also be aberrant. The One True Core Belief is belief in God. Any beliefs and decisions which do not utilize the one true core belief are aberrant. The ignorant mind should be "rewired in truth" and aligned so that all beliefs are based on the One True Core Belief. This in mind, set all of ones priorities in accordance with ones belief in God.

CORPORATIONS, WHAT'S WRONG WITH? Corporations are entities which never die they can only go bankrupt. They survive by making a profit - that is taking in more money than they are spending. Because corporations are not human, they do not live by any moral code other than man-made law. Most money in society is going into fewer and fewer hands as corporations grow and destroy small business. Mass production and mass distribution force the "little man" out of business because he or she cannot compete against such low cost differentials.

Now these techniques are being applied to service and "niche" industries, the last strongholds of small business. Corporations are not content gobbling up the little guy, they are merging and acquiring other corporations becoming large conglomerates. America is becoming franchise land. You can fly two thousand miles away and feel as if you never left your own town. The same franchises are on every city street, and this is only the beginning. These franchises are going overseas too, becoming multi-national corporations. Ironically, these multi-national corporations do more to keep the peace on Earth than any government because they indirectly control several nation's governments through lobbying and providing jobs.

The dream of starting your own small business and having it succeed is fast on the decline. Thus, most people will work for a corporation and as technology advances, corporations will be needing fewer and fewer workers creating what will be thousands of unemployable people- basically useless except as consumers.

CREATIVITY VS. TRUTH: Creativity is the result of using ones imagination, truth is not. Basically, without imagination, there is no creativity. However, the truth need not be imagined, it simply is. Creativity is the manipulation of observation. A creative person adds to his or her observations in order to perceive what may not actually exist. A truthful person finds more meaning in his observations by observing more truth, which is the same thing as saying the truthful person observes less noise.

The teacher asks, "What do you see up there in the sky?" The truthful student replies, "I see a cloud." The creative student replies, "I see an elephant."

Encouraging creativity may not necessarily be good. It might even be likened to encouraging subjectivity. Ideas resulting from imagination are not always beneficial. The more one uses ones imagination, the more likely one is to create ones own observations based on delusion rather than truth. Observations which are not true are a cause of pain. Often the most creative people are described as "eccentric", or "living in a fantasy world".

CREDIT CARD OF SIN: Sad to say, but it seems many people believe that sin is like credit on a credit card. "Buy now, pay later." If this is the case, it must be a "gold" card. And all of us must then have pretty big credit card bills to pay to God. In reality, one can not even make the minimum monthly payment on such a card. No matter how many good deeds one did, one could never pay off ones debt in kindness.

Fortunately for us, God is forgiving. God's forgiveness is like canceling the debt on the credit card of sin, but not cutting off the credit line. By asking for God's forgiveness one is given God's forgiveness and remains a "member in good standing". All that is necessary is to accept the payment that was made for all mankind by God in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

What about the credit line? God will extend as much credit as necessary for one to realize that only through God's forgiveness can one be saved. However, God does not want one to keep charging away ones sins against the credit card of Jesus. God may not forgive one if one uses forgiveness as an excuse to sin. Nevertheless, be more like God in ones ability to forgive. Cancel old debts, but not the trust. If one does not, ones inability to forgive will eventually cause one great pain.

CULTS, WHAT ARE? Basically, a cult could be defined as any organization which denies the essentials of the Christian faith. Secular society, however, has a different definition of the word "cult". Today, a "cult" is the word that society has given to fringe groups which are tolerated by the laws of society, but which society as a whole feels are wrong. Ironically, when society as a whole is wrong, it too, will be wrongly calling the truth, a cult.

DEATH, WHAT IS? Death is the exchange of ones earthly identity, which is made up of both light and darkness, for either pure light or total darkness. In many ways ones life is like an ember thrown from the fire of living light to shine for a short while. Depending on the choices we make in our lives, we can either join this fire, or burn out and grow cold far away and apart from this fire. In death, the concept, returns to the percept.

The life of the flesh is quick and may end at any moment. One never knows when ones time will come. If one is not ready for death today, then one will most likely not be ready for death tomorrow. Will you be ready for your death should it come tonight?

A person who has found peace, by believing in God, is not afraid of death, for he or she understands life, and in understanding life, he or she understands and accepts death as an unavoidable consequence. Death is, after all, but the absence of life in the flesh.

Death is that part of life that brings about the end of the life of ones flesh. The flesh "you" will no longer exist, yet your spirit remains. When you are dead you are gone from this world. "For dust you are and to dust you will return." (Genesis 3:19) However, one will be remembered in the memories of the living and in turn ones message will never die. One may have also reproduced in ones life leaving behind a genetic legacy. Ones flesh returns to the earth, and ones spirit returns to God.

As spiritual development increases, fear of death decreases. This is because fear, in general, decreases with illumination, and also because one realizes that one is more than just ones flesh.

However, since death does not kill ones spirit, it would be very optimistic to say that everyone who dies is "resting in peace". Just as it is hard to explain why one was born at all, it is equally hard to explain or be sure that death ends it all. There is no such guarantee. In fact, scripture warns otherwise.

Scripture warns that in the end, all will be judged and the righteous will be resurrected into a new glorified body, and the unrighteous cast into Hell, or separated from God forever. The Kingdom of Heaven, however, may be known even before one dies, for the Kingdom of Heaven is in ones midst as revealed by Jesus Christ. Better to find the kingdom and enter now then to have it land upon you when you die. The Kingdom of Heaven is Truth.

Scripture explains that death entered the world as a consequence of sin. As a result of the "original sin", to which we are all related in our flesh, it is now appointed that each of us die in our flesh.

Death is sometimes called, "The Great Equalizer", because all the fleshly, temporary gains one has made in ones life drop away with the death of the flesh, and one is simply a spirit before God, like everyone else, who must eventually answer for ones deeds. This in mind, store up treasures, or rewards, in Heaven through good works of love and kindness rather than fleshly treasures on Earth in possessions which are temporary and lost with death.

Life is like the life of a caterpillar, and death is like a caterpillar gone to cocoon. One prepares for ones cocoon in life. If one does nothing but evil in ones life, one will not escape ones cocoon in death but be trapped within it. If one has found Christ, one has Christ to open ones cocoon after death. Though dead to the world, the caterpillar may emerge again as a beautiful butterfly, a new creation, unbounded by past limitations.

DECISION: A decision is basically a new association regarding groups of previous observations or previous associations which requires the use of logic, or reasoning.

DECISION VS. BELIEF: Suppose there are many roads one may take to ones home, but one has never taken any before. The first time home, one chooses a road that appears to lead directly to ones home, but it turns out to be long and winding. Thus, the next time, one makes a decision to try a different road. Finding this road even longer, one tries another. After trying several, it becomes clear that some roads are better than others. Trying new roads becomes increasingly risky as one does not know how long they are until one has tried them, so one decides to take the shortest road one knows home from then on. One makes a conclusion, as to which road is the best one to take.

After one has made a conclusion, one forgoes new decisions. In other words, one no longer tries new roads. The moment one affirms a conclusion, it becomes a belief. Should a passerby ask which road is best to take, one would point to the road one believes to be the shortest. Be careful not to draw conclusions too quickly. Suppose there exists a road never tried which is the best of all. Education increases knowledge, which increases choices and opportunities to take the best road.

One draws on all of ones observations in order to make a decision. When one makes a decision one is electing what one thinks will yield the best outcome. One doesn't make the same decision over and over again, instead, one draws conclusions. A belief resulting from such conclusion is a previous decision which one uses instead of making a new decision. A belief is like a computer program which one uses again and again. When the program is run, it produces the same output every time. If the program is not correct, the program will produce incorrect output every time until one "de-bugs" the program. Illumination of a belief will allow one to find and "de-bug" ones programs.

The road one decides on as being the best is the road that one will pave and turn into an interstate. In selecting the way one thinks is best, one is denying all the rest. This is what a belief is like. Now suppose one installs exit ramps along ones interstates. Beliefs are dependent upon each other like roads from exits off an interstate. If a core belief is aberrant then so are all beliefs which rely upon that core belief as being true.

Should one come to forks in the road, ask God to reveal the way to Go. The way of Christ is the best way to go. One really need not try every road to find the best road.

DEPRESSION: Depression is the state of the unenlightened mind. It is an aberration caused by believing in ignorance. Depression is a classic symptom of someone holding onto painful beliefs. Painful beliefs may seem hard to overcome because illumination can be perceived as being painful, although it is the belief itself which causes the pain, not the truth. Believing the truth actually cures depression.

Often, depression is the result of ones attempt to punish another by punishing oneself. Of course, one is only hurting oneself when one does this, and blaming others is in vain. "Woe is me." Feeling sorry for oneself is painful delusion. Expectations cause pain when things don't come to pass the way one wants them to. The sooner people realize who is ultimately in charge of their lives, the sooner they can stop trying to fight a losing battle. Expectations are delusion! God is in control, not you. Life is so wonderful, beautiful, and joyful when one believes this simple truth.

Even in the face of tragedy, realize how fortunate one truly is. It is true that there are many hardships, and losses, but that's just the way it is. "The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord."

DESIRE, MAZE OF: Desire is like a maze one is born into. As one travels through the maze in ones life, through the discipline of the maze, one learns the pitfalls and false ways until one finds, at last, the way that is right. When one finds the right way, which is the way out of the trap, one is able to overcome the maze, and desire itself. One is neither the first nor the last to be in this maze. It has been overcome before. The narrow path of righteousness which overcomes the maze has been marked by the innocent blood of truth.

If there is cheese somewhere in the maze, a rat in the maze will run towards the cheese rather than look for a way out and will run more quickly the nearer it gets to that cheese. Get ones priorities in line with truth. It is more important to overcome the maze than to go deeper into it in order to find temporary food. The deeper one goes into the maze, the more likely one is to find oneself trapped forever. Be careful lest one falls for the bait of evil in the maze of desire.

DESIRE, WHAT IS? Whatever one desires, one may eventually gain, but as long as one desires, one finds no peace. Desire is insatiable. Desire is yearning for pleasure (attachment) or yearning for the avoidance of pain (aversion). Desire is the false belief that one may achieve permanent satisfaction from pleasure or avoidance of pain. Pleasure is not permanent and ends with desire. Desire itself, is a form of suffering. Desire is the fuel which keeps the cycle of pain and pleasure in motion. Avoidance of pain results in the perpetuation of lies and can only end by letting go of pain by facing the underlying truth. Suffering is again created out of filling ones desire because whatever one may gain out of desire is not permanent and so the suffering never ends.

In order to achieve enlightenment, release oneself from desire. One who frees oneself from desire shall need no more. How many times have you heard someone say "Where were you when I needed you?", or "Now that I don't need the money, I have it." The more one reduces ones desire, the sooner ones original desire is ironically fulfilled, and when one no longer desires at all, ones original desire often becomes ones slave. Desire seems to work backwards, the less one desires, the more likely one is to get what one desires. Reducing ones desire for wealth does not mean that one will not be wealthy, on the contrary, one will be like the rich- unwanting. Wealth will come looking for you!

Desire seeks peace. Thus, peace is always desirable. If one achieves peace, one will always be desired. The only acceptable desire is the desire to end desire itself and find God. This is the oneness of heart sometimes referred to as "one pointedness".

DEVIL, WHAT IS THE? Not God. Not truth. The ultimate ignorance. The Devil, Satan, Serpent, Dragon, Evil One, or Lucifer, as it may be referred to, is often depicted in art as a sly, horned, red, half-man/half-goat with a pitch fork in its hand. This is only a symbol of the Devil's deceit and the fire-like consequences which an evil lifestyle brings upon one. The artist's representation may be a representation of 'bad blood'. This is why the Devil often appears red in art. The word "Devil" is really the word "evil" with a "D" in front of it. Consider it as short for "Do evil", for when one does evil intentionally, one is nothing more than a devil. If one thinks of "evil" as any evil act, think of the "Devil" as the overall evil force which is in the world. The Devil is described as a fallen angel, perhaps still falling.

Mankind has given names to forces and entities to personify them. And where is the problem in personification if such personification matches the underlying concept? After all, personification and anthropomorphism are often used to facilitate communication. The Devil is the ultimate privation of goodness, intentionally evil.

There is evil in the world, it is all around us- war, murder, drugs, lies, deceit, etc. Try telling a victim of evil that there is no such thing as evil. There is an overall evil force which seems to purposely seek people to do its bidding. It is ultimate self-interest, ultimate selfishness. This force lures ignorant people through promises of quick and easy pleasure, but evil has long term destructive consequences. The Devil uses lies, trickery, and deceit to coerce people to do its bidding. And often, people don't know that they are doing things which hurt people including themselves. The Devil hides the truth about God in order to achieve it's agenda. Because there are so many ignorant people, the world for the most part is an evil place. The world is considered the kingdom of evil because it is filled with so much delusion and ruled by the king of evil. God inadvertently created the Devil in the gift of free will, the choice to deny even God. The Devil must continually reinvent itself as it is wounded and destroyed by truth. The Devil cannot kill God, it only attempts vainly to enslave God.

I like to think of the Devil as wearing and selling T-shirts that say, "I will live forever." This is the delusion the Devil is selling.

DEVIL'S AGENDA, WHAT IS THE? The agenda of the Devil is the advancement of evil. The Devil is trying to arrest complete control of the universe from God. Evil is advanced whenever the truth is hidden, disguised, painted over, obscured, abbreviated, added to, or otherwise manipulated. The Devil attempts to divide truth or attach error to truth. The Devil also seeks to steal the chisel of the Lord from which all creation is possible unknowing that it lies within one's heart not outside of oneself. The Devil wants to enslave God and all of God's creations, but first it must break loose completely from God. However, God holds the leash of the Devil. The Devil can go no further than the length of the chain God keeps about its throat. The Devil wants to syphon away the living water of God. As Edmund Burke has made clear, all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing.

The Devil's agenda is to give everyone the "Mushroom Treatment". In other words the Devil wants to keep everyone in the dark and feed them bull shit. All in all, the Devil wants mankind to live in the image of the beast rather then the image of God.

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