Aw, thanks Orby. Yes I can be your official spokesperson for your mom, I accept payment in candy.
A Catholic school teacher...I feel your pain OQ!


I never believed the stories in the bible to be real, but fables...I'm not sure that they're all just fables. I guess I more think of the stories in the Bible as symbols & metaphors of something that resembles truth. That is, I don't think that the bible is a book of lies per-say, just a very misunderstood book of metaphors that explain our souls' purpose to our human minds. I think that the Bible is a book created to contain the truth, if you know how to read it & decipher the literal words from the metaphors. I understand that some words in the Bible do not mean what we once thought they meant. Therefore, I believe a lot of misinterpretation has been made. Some of the words in the Bible that are most often mistaken are as follows...Temple, son, ages, resurrection, heavens, world, fruit etc. We read these words one way in the Bible, but if we took away their literal meanings & replaced them with their actual intended meanings, we start to see truth in the words of the Bible. Temple = mind/body, son = sun, ages = our celestial alignments, resurrection = proof of life after death, heavens = the universe & a specific consciousness; not a specific place, world = consciousness of the mind, fruit = knowledge, and one that I forgot to add is pillars/towers = our human mind & soul consciousness. These words are sometimes taken quite literally in the Big Book to mean structures, buildings, real physical places instead of levels of consciousness, knowledge etc. But if you read scripture applying the 'real' meanings of those words, you'll find that the Bible isn't as far fetched as it seems. You'll find some truth & hidden meaning in the Bible. I DID NOT always believe this, it was part of my spiritual journey here to discover the hidden truths of the Bible. There was a time in my life that I didn't believe a single thing written in that book , but now, after years of research & study & opening my mind to receive truth , I've come to terms with the Bible. I will never be the type of person who lives & dies by the words of the Bible, but I do see the value of it, if properly read & applied. In order to do that, you have to forget everything you already know about it & start from scratch.


Oh, how I'm able to relate to this! Some of my very own thoughts coming out of the mouth of someone I've never met. I concur on all accounts OQ. I find that God listens & communicates just as well when I pray from home. I also find it hard to learn from a man (priest) who is probably committing the same 'sins' as I, yet calling me a 'sinner'. Fashion show/meat market...LOL, yep, agreed. Sometimes I felt like the fashionistas of my church were going to get a rude awakening when they discovered that they were smack dab in the middle of "The Emperor's New Clothes", and they were the Emperor himself, standing there naked, with egg on their faces! Why does such vanity & stature take over in a place where you are supposed to feel humble & unified Why do we keep trying to 'one up' each other, when the reason we were all in the House of God to begin with, is to unify w/God & ourselves. How do we unify when we keep setting ourselves apart from each other by these silly worldly things? Church...sometimes the Mecca of 'sin' (if you believe in that meaningless word).


I know what you mean. If you believe in the church, religion & the Bible, then I would expect that a person should live that belief in all areas of their life, not just the area of life dedicated to one Sunday a week. If you wouldn't drop it like it's hot in church, then you shouldn't drop it anywhere else either . If you wouldn't cheat on your wife in church, then you shouldn't cheat anywhere else. Yet, time & again I see people fip-flop once their hands touch the double doors of church. Hypocrisy...I think it originated in church.

Now that's not to say that that's how I view all church-goers, no not at all. I believe that some people live their faith in every aspect of the term. For those people, I have respect . Not because of 'what' they believe, but because they have the courage to speak what they believe & then live it. Even if I don't agree with their beliefs or their lifestyles, I respect them for being true to 'self', I respect them for their loyalty to self.

Satan's door ? Usually a person who feels so comfortable as to tell you that you're not good enough to sit beside our Creator, is a person who fears that THEY are not good enough. We are mirrors of each other , we ARE each other. We are ALL worthy, as long as we right our wrongs w/self & the ones we hurt along the way. God? Why right it w/God? We are God, us; our neighbors, our children our friends, our enemies...all God. When we 'right' it with them/us, we ARE righting it with God .

The next time someone tells you that you are headed straight for Satan's door, you tell THEM to save you a seat (and just to pull their leg a bit, tell them you prefer a table by the fireplace)!

Jesus, yes I agree, he did walk the earth. But as the son of God? I think he was a wonderful prophet & teacher of humanity. I think his purpose here was to show us that WE are God. I think Jesus' main lesson here was to teach us that WE are OUR neighbor, WE are OUR enemy, WE are God. One of the lessons that sticks so much in my mind was the "Turn the other cheek" lesson. In the Bible, this has been taken to mean; & I'm paraphrasing here: "When someone physically hurts you (or emotionally), don't hurt back, turn the other cheek. Don't let yourself get physical/hurtful with another human being out of spite or anger." Well, yes, that is a decent lesson, but I think the real lesson is: "Don't beat yourself up". Now how can the lesson mean don't beat YOURSELF up, when it clearly states to turn the other cheek when SOMEONE ELSE strikes/wrongs you? Well that's what I meant by the hidden meanings in the Bible: I think that the "turn the other cheek" lesson was intended to help us realize that we are all One. Since we are all connected, all mirrors of each other, we ARE "they", "them", "us", "we"...WE are the ones that Jesus was referring to in this instance - OUR COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS. If I am hurt by my neighbor, it is only human to want to hurt back...when you look at your neighbor as a SEPARATE entity from your 'SELF'. But when you realize that your neighbor is really just a reflection of a certain aspect of your 'SELF', you realize that what Jesus was really saying was this: "The more you hurt your neighbor, the more you really just hurt yourself." Like cutting off your nose despite your face, do you get what I'm saying? If I'm getting resistance from people, that is the universe telling me that something in OUR collective consciousness is conflicting. So if I treat the collective consciousness as separate entities (people) out to get me or harm me, then I'm only perpetuating the conflict by not realizing that it is ME (a reflection of me, an aspect of me) that is in conflict. Not that SOMEONE is starting conflict with ME. By striking back, I am literally hurting my "self", since it's my "self" (or aspects thereof) that are causing the friction. You are an aspect of me OQ, & I am an aspect of you; we are both reflections of the same source. And as reflections of the same whole, we all have the same purpose...unity. If we separate ourselves from each other here on earth, we forget that we are all One. Jesus was saying that we need to remember that we are NOT separate, but One. So when we strike out in retaliation, we are striking ourselves. He was saying that to turn the other cheek, allows you to see the many parts of yourself (other people); as YOU, instead of seeing them as "other people". In that case, why would you strike yourself? Why would you intentionally hurt yourself? You wouldn't. You would try to understand why that aspect of yourself is in conflict wouldn't you? If I was suffering leg pain, I wouldn't go & cut off my leg to remedy that problem. I would try to understand what is causing that pain, I would look within my own body to see what's causing the pain, then I would try to fix it. That's what turning the other cheek means to me - Don't disregard & strike back @ the pain, but instead, LOOK WITHIN & find the source of the pain, then heal yourself.

Turn the other cheek = don't beat YOURSELF up. Learn & move on, but as 'One', NOT AS INDIVIDUAL MISSING PARTS (discarded legs).

Sometimes I explain this to my children with the example of a hand. I tell them that every person here on earth, along with God, creates one hand. God/Source is the palm, the base. WE are the many fingers/appendages/ extensions of that palm/God. TOGETHER we can "grasp" anything. TOGETHER, we become ONE functioning hand. But what if our fingers didn't work TOGETHER? What if our fingers didn't believe that they were all parts of a whole, and instead thought of themselves as individuals connected to nothing. What if our fingers didn't like each other & disagreed with each other to the point of revolt? What if the fingers decided that they were individuals, who weren't even aware of each other? Well then we are left with a palm & five separate fingers (four fingers & a thumb if you want to get technical- see the way we sub-categorize our parts, further perpetuating the idea of separation?) - not a hand. To be the hand, we must work TOGETHER. We must realize that we are ONE body part (consciousness) - a hand. We're not separate from each other, we ARE each other. Each of those fingers are connected to & a part of, the palm (God/Source). Every single one of them are ATTACHED to base/palm/source. And every single one of them, a direct EXTENSION of the palm/source. There is no separation, it is but one part, one whole...one hand. "One".

The sooner we all "grasp" this concept, the sooner we will grasp the universal knowledge available to us. But we must first realize that to "grasp", we need to be a hand - One.

Boy do I know how to ramble on or what? So sorry. Sometimes I just get lost in my own thoughts.

I will end with this though, I do have a certain love for people that I hate. I can't explain what I mean exactly, but I'll try. Have you ever looked at a convicted murderer & been able to feel connected to him/her. Not on a morbid level of any sort, but just able to relate somehow to that individual? I have experienced this throughout my life. I have beaten the crap out of some girl back in school, only to run to her defense later when she needed help. I have wished a child molester death, only to grieve (at some level) his passing & lifeless existence here on earth. I have watched a mother kill her own children & wished her the pain & suffering that the children had to endure, only to find my self feeling sympathy for her, as the memories she will have to live with - for the rest of her life.

I don't feel ashamed for these feelings. I think that it is proof that we are One . I am FEELING CONNECTED to that murderer because he/she is ME. I feel the need to DEFEND MY ENEMY, because that enemy is ME. I GRIEVED the child molester, because dare I say it; that molester is ME. And I sympathize with the undeserving mother, because I am SHE as well. Even if I didn't do those things as me; Jaime, I still have to realize that these 'others' are extensions & reflections of me. They are the parts of me that I (we) as a collective consciousness, have separated ourselves from. Those people are the parts of me that don't "get it" yet, individual fingers - not working as a hand. So it's easy for me to hate, & at the same time; to love, forgive, empathize & relate to these people that we consider to be the 'bad seeds'; the enemies. WE are OUR own enemies, WE are all that is wrong with US. I guess that's the proof that we stem from positive energy & love. Any human in their right mind would never sympathize or empathize or relate to the handful of people I just mentioned, right? Well the answer's in the question..."handful of people"...one hand - they ARE us. We are all the very same Hand. Then take in mind that we are also NOT JUST human, and the whole game changes. Now 'right mind' takes on a whole new meaning when we exclude the human idea of 'right mind' & replace it with the universal idea of 'right mind' = one mind - a universal way of thinking.

Maybe to some people I sound crazy, that's what Dick used to say anyway. Dick is the part of me that hasn't gotten it yet , the part of me that still struggles to feel worthy & whole. I accept this. I do have the power to change this aspect of my 'self' though, & I realize that. By disconnecting the negative from my life, I make room for positive. By letting Dick go, I have opened a space for another part of me to grow, kind of like pruning one part of a tree to promote growth on another part of it. But I have to remember that Dick is actually some aspect of ME, & I have to remember that I need to respect & love Dick, no matter the 'illusion' of difference between the illusion of 'us'. And so I will...from the illusion of distance!

I have a feeling that your mom will believe what she so desires. She is the part of you & I that teaches 'acceptance'. Although we disagree with her beliefs, we have to remember that she is the part of 'us'; self, that is teaching the lesson of 'acceptance' to us. From her, we are learning how to accept each other as individuals with different ideas & beliefs. And yes, to some degree we came here to learn what it is like to have the illusion of individuality. However, people like you & I OQ, help to teach mom that very same lesson, but with a twist. The twist is "I can love & respect you anyway". Yes at some level everyone has to learn to accept people for who they really are - the good, the bad, & the ugly. But the twist is literally to be able to learn to 'accept', while still loving that person; yourself. If we can accomplish that, then the collective consciousness starts to shift from 'separate' to 'One'. People like mom, have a hard time loving what they feel they cannot accept about others. People like you & I have a hard time believing that there are 'others' to begin with. Mom is just the different aspects of you & I that exist. We love her, no matter the difference in belief.

From now on don't battle her in the area of religion/spirituality , just accept her beliefs as 'her beliefs' & love her for her loyalty to God/self. That's all you can do. You can change the outcome of your relationship in that area by acceptance coupled w/love. When we try so hard to convince others of our own beliefs, we slowly start becoming the 'Dicks' of the world. We become what we say we hate - an idea/belief pusher . We have moved past that level OQ, you & I as individuals have already learned that 'free will' means exactly that. Now we have to teach people to accept & love our differences, as they bring together the whole picture. Mom knows this, at a universal level she knows this & may even realize it before our time here is finished. But it is up to her to find that truth for herself, even if it isn't exactly in your timing. I know, it sucks not to be able relate perfectly to the woman who helped breath life into your body. But if we all related perfectly to each other, what would we learn from each other?

I know this religion/spiritual conflict between you & mom isn't the whole of your relationship, I don't mean to insinuate that it is. I believe that you & your mom have a very strong bond, just as my mom & I did. It's just a constant life lesson for the both of you & all of 'us' to learn...see, accept, then love anyway.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me, I feel validated through your experiences & am happy to see that we relate to each other so well...I should hope so, seeing as how YOU are ME & I'm one hell of a great lady! LOL, yeah, I'm still workin on that conceit lesson!

Love & blessings, or as you would say; love, light & laughter,

~Jaime~