inner wealth cannot be stolen

I saw a video clip on facebook from the Dalai Lama. 1:40, watch it if you have the time, great motivational message!



This message is the same message I believe Jesus brought to the people, and probably similar to the prophets of all the religions. Love thy neighbor as thyself. I mean, who can deny the wisdom of this video, and most of the sayings of our ancient holy men. This video is using a language that we understand, and he is putting his words together in a way that modern humans can understand clearly what is being said. He has a rare gift for it, "interpreting the words of God". :) (thank you for this video, and for crafting these sentences to be so clearly understandable)

Our ancient holy men were trying to send similar messages. They made wise philosophies, taught them, and then some people wrote them down. And then some people who want rank and privilege take the stories and change them a little and suddenly there are droves of easy jobs for the Faithful down at the church house and a tax is levied upon the believer to support them.

We all need the wisdom and kindness of this message within us, but we must turn a critical eye to our Holy Books and understand that there were once lazy, greedy men who wanted easy jobs. Today that type of person sits around oval tables and wear fancy clothes, and make decisions that cause oil volcanoes in the Gulf of Mexico. Or they sit in comfortable chairs while their people kill those people over imaginary lines in the sand, or failed political policy.

The traditions caused by these first Multinational Corporations have huge ripples throughout our societies, just like science can still hear echoes of the Big Bang in the static noise of the universe. This echo of religion will be with us for a long time. It will come and go and with each ripple it will steadily grow calmer.

I don't have any answers to these things, and I stand firmly astride the Battle of Belief. I have gone from True Believer to Atheist during most of my life, but not too long ago I lost my new religion, Atheism. I listened to a podcast with Carl Sagan's wife, Ann Druyen, Neil DeGrasse Tyson and someone else I can't recall... but at one point Ann laughs and says, "you know, Carl thought Atheists were kinda silly..." and the next few lines literally changed my opinion of Agnostics, and converted me. Until then I had always seen an Agnostic as a fence sitter, unwilling to make a decision. When in fact, Atheism makes a leap of Faith, just like Belief does, in it's conclusion that there is no God.

Basically, in a nutshell it boils down to this. Until we have been to every corner of the Universe, and looked behind every speck of dust to make sure he's not hiding there watching, who's to say. While I do not believe in a Personal God, watching my every move and a running total of my good deeds v. my bad deeds, I do not have any suggestion whatsoever as to where all the stuff came from that the Universe is made of.

Where did all the stuff come from? Why do atomic particles obey so many laws of science and why does Gravity work? Many of our Founding Father's, in America, were Deists. Their belief in "God" was in a god of science and math who made the universe and then set it free. For many Deists the religion of a Personal God, was a tool for taxing and controlling the People. It was a cruder, less effective form of Government that had once ruled most of the world.

For all I know, when we do look behind that one speck of dust, and notice something isn't obeying the Laws and find Him sitting there watching, and waiting for us to find him....