Religion is not True Freedom

Happy Holidays.

I am feeling blessed today—whatever that means, and grateful to be alive. 

However, I've never been able to pin myself down...or subscribe to any specific religion.

I hate Labels.

I don't even like the negative terminology used for people like me, Agnostic..or Atheist.

The reason being, that once I pin a religious label on my myself, metaphorically speaking, I then become a large human target.

At least that's how I would likely feel.

The Christians are at war with the Atheists, the Muslims are at war with the Christians..the Jews hate the Germans...and with good reason. 

Adolf Hitler wanted Jewish people eradicated from the earth.

I guess my point here, is that I have no desire to become a large human target for some other group to "cast the first stones" at.

Important here to note also, that I've been thoroughly schooled in religiousness by friends of Bill Wilson, (AA religiousness) and also by relatives who are fully immersed in Christianity. 

They all seem happy to glorify and dwell in the lord while ignoring the obvious divisiveness of the Baptist, Jehovah Witness, and Pentecostal churches. 

I was sent to Sunday school when I was a toddler. 

And, although I am interested in the wisdom and philosophy of all these ancient sects, it is my opinion that they all lead to heated arguments, further divisions and bad feelings..and, most of all, they all desire a large percentage of a man's hard earned wages. 

It's all about the money...it always is. 

We are all free to worship..you say?

A belief in God is not free nor is it true Freedom.

I feel that, as the great Krishnamurti once stated, "..'truth' is a pathless land and it cannot be reached by following any path."

That being said, I am following the path of Mother Nature.

I feel that following mother nature is the way to True Freedom. 

Some say that is the true God.

And that Nature is the road that leads to a full and fulfilling life.

Even if it is only "simple living."

Even if it is living toward an old age and then wilting away like an old growth pine.

At least it's a natural process.

Nature leads all living things back to dust.

And that, to me, is God.

And that, to me, is True Freedom. 

 GWM/12/27/18

Quotes from Krishnamurti: 

Quotes

It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.

We all want to be famous people, and the moment we want to be something we are no longer free.

I maintain that Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect.

Conspiracy Theories

Wolves are one of my favorite animals.

They remind me of humans...only much more authentic.

Wolves are the real deal.

Like other predators, including mankind, they're best approached and observed, at least at first, from a very safe distance.

Do they even know that they're beautiful, these wolves who scare the hell out of anything they encounter?

Wolves are social-pack-animals that only kill in order to eat and survive another day.

And—what about those fairy tales ?

The ones we were told in those bedtime childhood myths?

Tall tales that we were force-fed and conditioned to believe.

Like the one about the little girl with the Red Hood?

Or the three little innocent piggies who were eaten by the big bad wolf?

Is any of that stuff true?

Certainly not.

It's more likely that our sick parents, who were once traumatized by their parents, decided to repeat the offence on us. 

Which, by the way, didn't help us a bit in understanding nature's wonderful complexities or the beautiful-creatures which dwell on the hidden surfaces of this planet. 

Wolves are just like all of us other earthlings who are trying to find something good to eat so we can live another day and they are not intentionally trying to cause problems for humans. We are as much trespassers in their world, as they are in ours. 

For me, it's very simple to see the world in a holistic way. One that tells me we are obviously all, including wolves and other mythical beasts from childhood, a part of a greater whole..sadly most people do not.

I believe that, due to being told myths and fairy tales at such an impressionable age and so early in our brain's development, most people, either consciously or unconsciously, fear anything that has sharp teeth and lives in forested areas or oceans.

I realize that it's not a good practice to place blame on something. But as an Atheist, I also blame religion, Christianity mostly—which I feel goes polar opposite and contrary to mother nature in almost every aspect.

After all, what is the Bible if not a book of middle eastern fairy tales for adults?

What ever your beliefs are, real or fictional, conspiracy or otherwise, I want to tell you that I do have the utmost of respect for you and your personal beliefs.

Although I hope you do not pass along or project your belifs upon your children. They are born, as we all are, with a built in bullshit detector. And let's not mess with that.

 And as the famous quote, which has been falsely attributed to the great philosopher, Voltaire once stated: " Even though I may not agree with what you say, I will defend  to the death your right to say it."

Thanks for reading.

Check out this interesting video below from one of the greatest thinkers of all time.

What is Religion?

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULaiDcHPlJg

My Opioid Overdose Diary

"He who is not busy being born is busy Dying" ~ Bob Dylan.



Last June, nearly a year ago, at age 55, I was given up for dead.

I  was at the Dartmouth General—tubes down my throat, intravenous, interstitial, etc. etc...my heart had stopped and subsequently had been jump-started again by the staff physicians.  My family were called.

And now, 11 months later, I feel reborn, clean and sober and willing to tell everyone who will listen, what works and what doesn't work.

The heart beat that nearly stopped for ever, goes on and on once more. I have also once again found my voice.

You see, it seems I had once again purposely overdosed by swallowing a handful of Opioids. The brand name doesn't matter, the content is all the same. Pain Killers, the illegal kind, in pill form. If that wasn't enough, I had quickly washed them down with 2 large bottles of Listerine Gold.

I then proceeded to calmly walk out of my apartment at 203, 3, Farthington Place.

I remember taking a long cool breath of crisp Dartmouth air before turning left onto Brule Street, and suddenly everything went Dark. Someone from a nearby Transition House saw me collapse and quickly called the Ambulance who were followed by Police.

I woke up in the most uncomfortable position, flat on my back, strapped to a rock-hard hospital bed. My father, Charles Sr., was sitting in a chair to my left. The 78 year old guy told me there and then that I was finished and he was finished. The bell had sounded. The 12th round was over and the self-hatred fight within me was now over for good. He politely said that 27 years of beating myself to a pulp in the twin Cities of Halifax and Dartmouth was long enough. I was going back to the place of my birth, located on the southern tip of the province of Nova Scotia,Canada.

This old man, my father, who had once contributed to some of my long ago pain, was now my savior. He gathered up what was left of me, placed me in the passenger seat of his Dodge Pick-up, and brought me back here—back to the tiny fishing Village of Lockeport.

I was busy dying back then, now I'm busy Living. It's early in my awakening—that I do realize. But my eyes are fully open. And even though I am not in that moment, there doesn't seem to be any mountains to climb in this one. So I will stay in this rather than that. I hope you understand my meaning here. It's important not to allow my thoughts to roam into a future that hasn't yet arrived.

I'm Grateful for what I've learned from the 27 years of creating my own private "Heaven and Hell." One which included Jails, Institutions, and AA meetings. Yet, I no longer want any part of that life..because even the life of being an AA member has its drawbacks, if one allows it.

For example, Love and Tolerance, although it is always preached in the rooms of AA, is seldom practiced. They also preached, but seldom practiced, that if one should trudge along on some invisible but omnipotent and powerful path, and listen closely to the token "Guru of the Month" who just happens to have years of questionable sobriety, and even more questionable credibility, you may, just may, stay sober.

In my case, I was too old and too tired and damaged to listen to anyone. Especially a load of Bill Wilson disciples (although they won't admit that) whose literature hadn't been updated in 80 years.

I knew that I somehow had to find "Me"..and then, and only then, I would find the illusive so-called "god of my understanding." I found out later, that the search was from the inside outward, not the other way around, as they had tried but failed to instill in me.

I already had all the built in tools for finding out who I was and what made me tick, I didn't need their 12 step programming. I had been programmed my entire life. I needed to be deprogrammed.

All I needed was 12 months of fresh air and meditation..soul searching in the solitude of nature.

I went walking along the local beach—strolling along on the smooth white sand—while the roar of the rugged North Atlantic played a natural symphony for me and my shaky footsteps in the background.

Then, in late Autumn, I went Deer hunting with bow and arrow. With no plans to hunt, only to find a quiet place to sit and reflect on the how and why of it all. To make a new friend to this so called "Self." This material body and psychological mind.

I meditated inwardly about the totality of brain and brawn. The Alcohol and foreign chemicals that I had poisoned myself with for years, were suddenly were no match my new and healthy thoughts and freshly oxygenated brain. And the human philosophy that makes us want to name-tag everything disappeared. Nothing had a man-given or god given name-tag. It simply"Was." And I was part of it. A being not a doing.

The name given to me by my mother at birth no longer held any significance. 

The Ego that was continuously whispering for me to get drunk or high was no-longer there. 

Garth and MacIntosh were just two words assigned to me without my choosing. 

In hindsight I could have been called "Outlaw" and it would have been much more fitting.

I'm suppose to refer to myself as an alcoholic and an addict. But is that who or what I really am? 

Does that truly define me?  We are those humans who hated ourselves at one time, and had no voice, and no one who would truly listen without prejudice. We are now ready to shout to the rafters about the importance of staying chemical free. Of free thinking, and freedom of thought, which, in my opinion, is true freedom.

" I maintain that Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect." - Jimmu Krishnamurti