The Book!

[zengrifter]

That is true. Watts is not the only person to say this. Heinlein got into the "I am God, you are God" biz in Stranger In a Strange Land. An American mystic named U.S. Andersen wrote a book called Three Magic Words- see if you can guess what those words are.

There is one problem with all of this which was summed up by, of all people, Bill Clinton- "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is." To say "I am God" can be construed as "'God' is defined by what I see when I look in the mirror," the ultimate egotism, or "I am made of God," which is a concept Christians and Jews are not inhospitable to. Likewise you can say "The Atlantic Ocean is water" and that would be correct, but "All water is, is the Atlantic Ocean" is not. Watts did a respectable job of explaining this. Notice that he is surprisingly respectful of traditional religion, which makes me take him even more seriously.

IF Jesus was an actual historic person, a big if in my book, then he likely didn't just say "I and the father are one." He included, "AND SO ARE ALL OF YOU!" This point underscores the great deception of monotheism in general and Christianity in particular - a purposeful mythology of the "one true savior" sets up a claim of exclusivity which not only serves both church and state while being globally divisive, but also preempts the masses from true esoteric spiritual participatory wisdom knowledge. zg

[zengrifter]

...or "I am made of God," which is a concept Christians and Jews are not inhospitable to. Likewise you can say "The Atlantic Ocean is water" and that would be correct, but "All water is, is the Atlantic Ocean" is not.

Yes, but - where the Bible says in Genesis that God made man in His own image, and radical Judiasm and Kabbala teach that each of us is "made" of God or that we as soul are each a "piece" of God, the highest wisdom of Hindu and Buddhist not only teach that 'Atma (individual soul) IS Brahma (the one all-encompassing oversoul or God)' - that there is no separation or division except only by illusion - the Eastern traditions also include systems by which one can transcend to such realization (ie, wake up!).

As opposed to "believing" so that when you die you won't burn in eternal hellfire damnation.

This also explains why great mystical types in past centuries were branded "heretics" and were sometimes burned at the stake. And also why the Lucifer myth (he was perfect until he decided that he was God) and the general denouncement by Christian authorities of all such 'enlightenment' thought and philosophy, both Eastern and so-called New Age (what Watts calles "the taboo on knowing who you are"). Thus the Christian stance is that, "all paths lead to the same place EXCEPT JESUS!"

BTW, I met 'Stan' Anderson years ago and I asked him how he came to write Three Magic Words - he told me that it was entirely by auto-trance writing. zg

[zengrifter]

This deserves a bump - as the Zzone@BJINFO draws nigh we are going to bump some of these special ones. zg

[zengrifter]

One of the great philosophy books.

[Katweezel]

[QUOTE=FGK42;27409]

One of my all time favorites. Complete zipped. zg

PREFACE - THIS BOOK explores an unrecognized but mighty taboo—our tacit conspiracy to ignore who, or what, we really are. Briefly, the thesis is that the prevalent sensation of oneself as a separate ego enclosed in a bag of skin is a hallucination which accords neither with Western science nor with the experimental philosophy-religions of the East—in particular the central and germinal Vedanta philosophy of Hinduism. This hallucination underlies the misuse of technology for the violent subjugation of man's natural environment and, consequently, its eventual destruction.

We are therefore in urgent need of a sense of our own existence which is in accord with the physical facts and which overcomes our feeling of alienation from the universe. For this purpose I have drawn on the insights of Vedanta, stating them, however, in a completely modern and Western style—so that this volume makes no attempt to be a textbook on or introduction to Vedanta in the ordinary sense. It is rather a cross-fertilization of Western science with an Eastern intuition.
-- ALAN WATTS

TRANSLATION: Take some lies, falsehoods, half-truths, innuendos and other shit, stir together and set to simmer on low, then wrap in flowery words, pretty phrases, logical phrases and WHAM - This Book!

When you open your mind up too much - your brain falls out! The truth is the truth. It's passed the test of time. If you don't like it - tough. It is what it is!

Imagine all the great philosophers since the beginning of time were wrong and just waiting for Alan Watts to enlighten us!

What a load of CRAP

It's passed the test of time, huh? I guess you are referring to the bible... As we can see right here on the Zen Zone (if you want to search), there is a wealth of hard evidence - all from many different, reputable sources - which says the bible has little to do with any truth whatsoever. In fact, it's a mishmash collection gathered over 900 years, and written by primitive unknown Jewish sand people. It's a book written by Jews, for Jews. For example, one of the ten commandments says to love thy neighbor. Are you aware this referred only to a Jewish neighbor? If they were gentile, to hell with em!

The bible is riddled with errors, falsifications, exaggerations, forgeries, contradictions, and has been rewritten/revised more than 1400 times that we know of. But don't believe me. Check it out for yourself. But worst of all, the bible is rich in dreadful atrocities ordered or condoned by 'God.' The strangest thing is most Xians don't even 'see' the dire atrocities perpetrated by 'God'. Or if they do, they just turn a blind eye and pretend they did not read, for example, God ordering all Egyptian newborn male infants to be put to death, in the old testament. Or God nuking all men women and children (and livestock) in the cities of Sodom & Gomorrah. This "God" is a vengeful, angry tyrant of the worst order.

He is sexist, misogynist, hateful, revenge-driven, sexually obsessed, condones slavery, is genocidal, an ethnic-cleanser, a mass murderer, and is racist. (He 'gives' Israel to the Israelites, despite other people already living there.) His favorite race is - you guessed it - the Israelites. Christians have swallowed all this nonsense for 2000 years without question. And they continue to do so today, in their millions.

Watts writes a book that contains much ancient wisdom from the East. Topics such as the Guru Principle, Meditation, Self-Realization, There is No Separation, Oneness, Duality, just to mention a few. These ideas make no sense to christians because their beliefs represent the opposite of those I just mentioned. So is it any wonder closed, brainwashed, uneducated minds find real truths about the human condition impossible to entertain for longer than ten seconds.

Many Founding Fathers wanted Separation of Church and State. Below are a couple of examples of how low the Tea Party has sunk, with its nonsensical recruitment of "Jesus" to try to impress the many ignorant Christians out there. The FF would turn in their graves... I also brought along a pic of the man who had one of the greatest minds of the 20th century. In his letter to Gutkind, you will note how he feels about Christian and Judaism myths and fairy tales. Nowadays in America, unfortunately we have NO Separation of Church and state at all...

[Katweezel]

See a lot more of this disgraceful Tea Party stuff... http://teapartyjesus.tumblr.com/