pcooley
10-13-15, 1:43pm
I was just reading the post about Atheism in politics (http://www.simplelivingforum.net/showthread.php?12491-Politics-and-Atheism). Ultralite Angler seems very defensive about his atheist views. I tend toward the secular humanist viewpoint, and I see myself as somewhat cynical and somewhat skeptical. However, I have counted myself as a follower of Meher Baba since reading his Universal Message when I was in high school (circa 1982). I am never quite sure what I think about Meher Baba, but I have always had a deeply emotional reaction to him. I'm not sure why I bring it up here. I'm just puzzling my way through how we, as individuals, can be atheist in some senses, yet have deeply intuitive and emotional responses to spirituality in others. While some people seem to be all the way over to one side, (and without knowing Ultralight Angler, it feels like he is on that side), or the other, I believe most of us are muddling through in the middle - feeling deeply the forces in the universe beyond explanation, while simultaneously living by logic and reason.
I would now say about myself that I am a Buddhist, and I am also a devotee of Meher Baba. As a person raised in a Southern Baptist household, I do not like the term "God", and a lot of people of all religions have caused a great deal of misery in God's name. In that way I would say I am a secular humanist as well. Why deny the totality of yourself as a human being?
However, Meher Baba is often in my dreams - he is the one most frequently identifiable person to show up in dreams I have. A great deal has been made of his 44 years of silence, and of his frequent claims to be on the cusp of breaking his silence, and the miraculous results that would follow. Logically, it is silly. I had a dream the other night though, that I was standing on the side of his tomb-shrine in India. He came walking up the hill, and he beckoned to me with both hands. I ran down to him and threw my arms around him. "Baba, I love you." I said to him. "I love you too," he whispered to me. "Baba, you spoke!" I said. "Yes," he replied, "but not in the way you expected."
I found that dream very moving, and I felt at peace and at home. I know some people who follow Meher Baba who would say that dream was really, really, real. I cannot say that I am sure about that. I could take an rationalist view and say that it is just some expression of my unconscious mind. I prefer to just rest in the feeling of being deeply loved and at home. That feeling, itself, is real, even if there is no rational explanation for it. Perhaps, for me, the historical figure of Meher Baba is an embodiment in my psyche of the collective unconscious. If that is the case, then it's nice to know the collective has a place for me. I think there is something - a comfort? - there that I would not have if I were strictly atheist.
I'm not sure why I got on this topic. There was something about Ultralite Angler's post that makes me think he protest too much. We each of us are incredibly complex, even if you think of our bodies as incredibly complex machines. I, at least, hope there is room for everyone and room for every type of belief as long as we love and respect each other as individuals who occupy this beautiful world first, and vehicles for belief second, and treat "doctrine" as something that needs to be examined in the light of our needing to share this planet lovingly. I would certainly feel non-discrimination of anyone, from Evangelicals to Atheists, would be included in that.
I found this version of the Universal Message. I don't know who this person with the strange accent is doing the narrating. He is being carried around because he had two terrible auto accidents, one in 1952 near Prague, Oklahoma, and another in 1956 near Satara, India. A lot of the footage is from the Meher Spiritual Center in Myrtle Beach, SC, near where I grew up. There's still 500 acres of virgin forest in the middle of all the highrise hotels, bars, tourist shops, and strip clubs of Myrtle Beach - something of a miracle in its own right, given that Meher Baba objected to any organization being formed in his name after his death. I go there when I can.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBPyz6903PA
I would now say about myself that I am a Buddhist, and I am also a devotee of Meher Baba. As a person raised in a Southern Baptist household, I do not like the term "God", and a lot of people of all religions have caused a great deal of misery in God's name. In that way I would say I am a secular humanist as well. Why deny the totality of yourself as a human being?
However, Meher Baba is often in my dreams - he is the one most frequently identifiable person to show up in dreams I have. A great deal has been made of his 44 years of silence, and of his frequent claims to be on the cusp of breaking his silence, and the miraculous results that would follow. Logically, it is silly. I had a dream the other night though, that I was standing on the side of his tomb-shrine in India. He came walking up the hill, and he beckoned to me with both hands. I ran down to him and threw my arms around him. "Baba, I love you." I said to him. "I love you too," he whispered to me. "Baba, you spoke!" I said. "Yes," he replied, "but not in the way you expected."
I found that dream very moving, and I felt at peace and at home. I know some people who follow Meher Baba who would say that dream was really, really, real. I cannot say that I am sure about that. I could take an rationalist view and say that it is just some expression of my unconscious mind. I prefer to just rest in the feeling of being deeply loved and at home. That feeling, itself, is real, even if there is no rational explanation for it. Perhaps, for me, the historical figure of Meher Baba is an embodiment in my psyche of the collective unconscious. If that is the case, then it's nice to know the collective has a place for me. I think there is something - a comfort? - there that I would not have if I were strictly atheist.
I'm not sure why I got on this topic. There was something about Ultralite Angler's post that makes me think he protest too much. We each of us are incredibly complex, even if you think of our bodies as incredibly complex machines. I, at least, hope there is room for everyone and room for every type of belief as long as we love and respect each other as individuals who occupy this beautiful world first, and vehicles for belief second, and treat "doctrine" as something that needs to be examined in the light of our needing to share this planet lovingly. I would certainly feel non-discrimination of anyone, from Evangelicals to Atheists, would be included in that.
I found this version of the Universal Message. I don't know who this person with the strange accent is doing the narrating. He is being carried around because he had two terrible auto accidents, one in 1952 near Prague, Oklahoma, and another in 1956 near Satara, India. A lot of the footage is from the Meher Spiritual Center in Myrtle Beach, SC, near where I grew up. There's still 500 acres of virgin forest in the middle of all the highrise hotels, bars, tourist shops, and strip clubs of Myrtle Beach - something of a miracle in its own right, given that Meher Baba objected to any organization being formed in his name after his death. I go there when I can.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBPyz6903PA