The Be Better Thought...

Hello Readers, welcome to another post. I have thought of numerous topics to write about since my last post but something always prevented that from happening… sometimes it was just that I was to tired… but in hindsight I wish I would have wrote because now I feel like I have a writer's block of sorts… So this could really be a piece of sure genius or something else that starts with an s.

I have had the mindset as an adult of always believing you can be better at whatever you are doing, even if you are the best… there is still some room for improvement. 

This is a "thought" that most religions drive home with different scenarios within their sacred texts. In the Bible… weird… I have been away from my former faith too long to quote scriptures, good, but anyway, I do remembering hear countless preachers say, "You can do anything through him [Jesus Christ]. There are other passages that drive this home with passages, again that I cannot quote, planting the thought "You can do anything if you put your mind to it." In the Christian scenario Christ is your motivation...

Buddhism entire theology is center around self improvement and personal evolution, per se. Always striving to be better in one form or another (samsara). Most, if not all, Indian born theology/religions drive the thought that we can always be better at whatever we do, no matter how amazing it may be.

Islam I cannot say for sure as I have only reads pieces and skimmed most of the Qur'an (however, I do own one), but I am sure given that it is an Abrahamic Faith there are passages that drive the "Be Better" thought into your mind… and yes there is a possibility that this thought comes into play with suicide bombers, do not think like that as I am not including the radical portions of any religions and am only pointing this out because in truth Islam can be good for some, they just need to be more open-minded, even more so than other very large religions. There radicals in all religions that is just a matter of fact.

I could point out something in every religion that drive home the "Be Better" thought as all do in some manner, but I think you get the idea. 

So the above proves the "Be Better" thought is ingrained into most of us through the religions we follow. Then again, there are some Atheist that are pretty good at a lot of things requiring said thought ("Be Better"). So how did they get that thought ingrained in them? Our education institutions teach this as well… that's how.

So when you think you cannot do something call on the "Be Better" thought and do it. This worlds needs more people that are passionate about being better, won't you join us?

It could have been better, and it will be if you want it to...

-automachi

My Afterlife as I See it Today... Could be Different Tomorrow...

Hello readers, since we have a long weekend w/ Labor Day I figured I could get a post in... hopefully one that is good... and I think this just may fit the bill. Lets take the journey and see how it goes. Enjoy...

I have a unique outlook on the afterlife since I switched from a Judeo-Christian religion(s) of 23 years to an Indian (w/ a lot of Buddhist Thought) Philosophy/Religion, but I do not subscribe directly to those afterlife scenarios of the "religion(s)" I follow. I believe in a combination of the Hindu/Buddhists afterlife(s).

The older I get and the more I study, both religion and other unrelated subjects, I have arrived at a place where science and religion cannot contradict each other for me believe in it wholeheartedly. Western religion as it has been taught cannot meets that criteria, meaning science has disproved major components of creation for starters... the only ones that I personally think can coexist in both science and religion is Eastern religions, the one I believe fits in science (as it cannot be disproved, and some of it is proven through science) and religion matrix the best is Buddhism which is my Foundation Faith (see the Foundation Faith post for more details). This is the main reason I subscribe to it, but I do believe aspects of Hinduism as well, and I do believe that most moral religions will take to you to a different "better" place... just in my mind I do not believe it will be quite what your expecting but you will not know it at that time.

The Afterlife as I see it through my eyes today goes like this, if you are a good person and have been good to others and lived a true good life, in every aspect you can control you are going to a better place... a different plain with less suffering than that of the human condition. At that time you will be born, or enter a new realm... that realm depending on your level of "enlightenment" achieved in the life you just had as well as Karma being a factor.

When you die in the "human" realm you energy and mindstream leave when your brain dies and you then hit that bright light, where it goes from there until you become "conscious" in another real I do not know yet... or how long it takes before you enter that new realm or become "conscious", as mentioned in the previous sentence, in "our time" (i.e. seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years), as time could be in those different realms. Once this quasi state just mentioned is over you enter this new "consciousness"on this new realm. Do you remember the past life being on a higher plain, I think you might be able to depending on how "high" your new realm is. I think the samsara nature is not completely know but I think there is something to say about the 31 plains of existence, it may be spot on, it may not be, but I do think there is something there, something accurate. Google that if you like to learn more... So that is if you were "good".

Now, if you were a piece of garbage in the "human" plain you do not go to a better place at the end of that quasi state mentioned above... You go to one of the less desirable plains, one may call them Hell. Your level of suffering increases rather than decreasing. This is not what you want to happen... Do you?

However, all these plains are in constant flux, including the "human" realm, but not including a plain called Nirvana (We will get to that in a minute). So you always will get the chance to go up and down on this plain "ladder", depending on your Enlightenment and Karma, being "born" into new or realms you have already been in many times, however, suffering will follow you no matter what realm you are on, but will lessen when getting to higher realms, until reaching that plain called Nirvana, which some may call Heaven.

Nirvana is a place you enter when you have eradicated all suffering and attachment giving pure bliss and a good "emptiness".

That is a short summary of what I think the afterlife is, more lives just in a different sense, and sometimes not. You may agree you may not, it makes no difference to me in any way, as long as I made you think...

It is mathematically probably that there are alternative universes, it this those other plains?... Sometimes I often think so... but who knows I could be full of it and so may be everyone else... Either way you have to decide, not someone else...

-automachi