Chapter 2

Wisdom from the POTEGP-Religion Path, be a student of a teacher that can inspire one’s complete Faith.

Section 1

The Second philosophical misconception one needs to resolve before they die is that one can learn spiritual or Universal Truth through just reading or listening to human words.

My philosophical discussion with my new guide continued……“WOW!…….Your first spiritual lesson on why ‘God’ can’t protect all the children, just rang so true, it resonated with me as the type of spiritual answer I have been searching for all my life……teach me more……give me another lesson… please….”

My new guide smiled, and responded…….“I would love to …..but there is a catch….” (uh – oh I thought to myself….here it comes…..a church or donation…..or I have to study for years to be worthy,etc…)….my new guide continued,………“the catch is ……..I can’t teach you a second lesson because I didn’t really teach you a first lesson, yet…….”(huh?…)…… “all I did was help you remember or see something you had already experienced/learned while living a moral and questioning/searching life…….I only helped you finish the second step of learning that first lesson.”

This point leads to solving the Second spiritual misconception one needs to resolve before they die.

The second misconception one needs to resolve before they die is the mistaken belief that one can learn spiritual or universal truth by simply listening or reading words.

The truth is that you cannot learn new Universal Truth or gain greater spiritual awareness by simply listening to or reading words, words meant to represent new facts or knowledge. When it comes to truly learning new Universal Truth or gaining new spiritual awareness, one can only learn it by both experiencing it and also having a high enough, conscious level of spiritual awareness of the experience!!!

The point is that gaining new spiritual awareness or learning a new Universal Truth is a two step process. The first step is to experience the Universal Truth and that gives one the POTENTIAL to learn or gain new awareness/knowledge from the experience.

But the new knowledge isn’t yet learned, the new awareness is not yet gained, it hangs like a ripe fruit on your own personal tree of knowledge. You must then consciously pick and use the fruit in order to gain the knowledge that was potentially in your previous Universal Truth experience.

This conscious picking and using the fruit is the second step to gaining the use or having the fruit of the experience, and this second step is having conscious level spiritual awareness of the Universal Truth experience.

THIS IS THE REASON ONE MUST LIVE THE EIGHT LIVES RATHER THAN JUST HEAR OR READ THE EIGHT LESSONS; YOU CAN’T LEARN UNIVERSAL KNOWLEDGE OR GAIN GREATER SPIRITUAL AWARENESS BY JUST READING. 

ONE MUST BOTH LIVE THE EXPERIENCE OF THE UNIVERSAL TRUTH FIRST AND SECONDLY HAVE CONSCIOUS LEVEL SPIRITUAL AWARENESS OF THE EXPERIENCE, TO TRULY LEARN IT!!!

So the Second spiritual misconception one needs to resolve before they die is that one can truly learn Universal Truth or gain greater spiritual awareness through just reading or listening to human words.

When it comes to truly learning a new Universal Truth or in gaining new spiritual awareness, one can only learn it by the two step process of both experiencing the Universal Truth and also having a high enough level of spiritual awareness to be aware of the Universal Truth at a conscious level of awareness.

Section 2

The Second person one needs to meet before they die is a respected teacher who can inspire complete Faith from a student.

A teacher that deserves and earns a student’s respect can inspire that student to have faith in the teacher and therefore complete Faith in the teacher’s teachings.

Section 3

The Second person one should be before they die is an inspired and respectful student.

As an inspired and respectful student, one has the opportunity to learn Faith.

Section 4

The Second life one should live before they die is that of a respectful student, who is inspired to have Noble-Faith.

A student that learns faith from a respected teacher has the opportunity to learn and develop a higher level of Faith; blind Faith or a Noble level of Faith. By living a life with a Noble level of Faith, at a conscious level of spiritual awareness, one can develop the Noble attribute of Faith.

Again, Faith guided by spiritual awareness is different than the common meaning for faith. As a Noble attribute it becomes a spiritual based tool that enables one to self-sacrifice their own intellectual based opinion in favor of the opinion of someone they have Noble-Faith in.

While a student can learn some things with only a basic level of Faith, there are also things that can only be learned with spiritual based Faith or with the Noble attribute of Faith.

The first types of cases are situations where the student is learning a subject for the first time. Therefore the student has no preconceived opinions on the subject that they would first have to set aside; a basic level of Faith is usually enough in these cases, especially for 3D concepts.

The second case involves situations where the student thinks he already knows the answer, but his answer is; either wrong, incomplete and/or blurred, in this case having basic Faith in the teacher won’t be enough. The reason is the student has to be open to the idea that what they believe is true could actually be wrong, before they would be able to accept the idea that the teacher is right.

For a student to be open to the fact that something they believe is right could actually be wrong, requires the student to have the ability to set aside their own intellectual opinion or to be able to self sacrifice the intellectual facet of their ego.

The ability to correct one’s preconceived inaccurate ‘truths’/ ideas by self-sacrificing one’s own intellectual ego in favor of a respected teacher’s intellectual opinion takes the spiritual attribute of Noble-Faith.

A student still needs to both experience and have a conscious level of awareness, of the experience, to gain conscious level spiritual awareness of the concept of Noble-Faith or develop the spiritual attribute of Noble Faith.

(Part 2 of a personal story)

You will find some of my personal story scattered throughout this book. My story isn’t being included in the book because I feel it’s important or because I think I’m important. What I feel is important is the message /thoughts; parts of my personal story are being included just to help the reader better understand the message.

So who am I? I’m a walking cliché, I’m sure you have heard the story of the very successful business man who wakes up one day and realizes there is more to life than making money or owning 3D things. The self made millionaire that walks away from the CEO suite to find God or if he can’t find God than to at least find his inner self so that he can know himself.

Well I was a very 3D successful businessman that came to realize there had to be more to life than money and physical possessions, something more than even family and friends; that moment of realization came on my 54th birthday.

I’ve since reflected back on that moment several times and the question I think about isn’t why I made that fateful decision that morning, but why I hadn’t seen it coming or why it took so long for me to realize there was much more to life than the 3D.

If you are voluntarily reading this book, then you are most likely; a religious, philosophical or spiritual seeker. This means you also have some level of awareness that there is more to the universe than just the 3D universe or much more to life than just money and physical/3D things, something even more than family and friends.

Reading this book and/or others like it probably means that you, either consciously or subconsciously, are deciding to start your own search. If so, then should you also walk away from your job to concentrate your efforts on finding God or in finding your inner self???

And that was the next question I asked my new guide and his answer…….“Well Greg, POTEGP’S answer to that question is………well, yes and no…….it depends on your current life situation and your chosen path.”

“For example Greg, if one chooses the p-Hindu path for layman, the answer would be no, on that path a lay person should wait, before they concentrate on self /spiritual /religious discovery, they should first fulfill their obligations to their family and their society (their 3D responsibility)  or in other words, they should wait until they are retired to begin their full time spiritual search.”

“If one chooses a Buddhist path and a monastery based ‘vehicle’ (the word label ‘vehicle’, is not being used in the traditional Buddhist sense) versus a householder / layman’s based path/ ‘vehicle’, then the answer would be yes, one should walk away from all 3D entanglements and join a monastery.”

My response was to express my confusion; “Path? Vehicle? By path do you mean my religious or philosophical beliefs or practice?”

“Greg the answer is again yes and no, for some people their religion or life philosophy can be their path, but for most people its only part of their path.”

You can imagine my elation, as I jumped to the conclusion that my new guide was about to reveal some special mystical parts of life’s “PATH”, parts that up to now I had been missing from my own personal practice, I gushed out to my new guide….

“That’s great, because while I have always felt good about my Christian beliefs in general, there have also always been parts of it that didn’t seem right or parts that seemed incomplete. For example, an all powerful, all knowing and all loving God not protecting the innocent children,…….what other parts am I missing from my Christian practice/path?”

“Well Greg, the first thing is that Christianity in itself isn’t usually one’s path, but before we look at that issue, what other parts of your Christian beliefs don’t seem right or complete to you?”

“Well you have already helped me with the all knowing, all powerful and all loving God not protecting the innocent children issue. Other examples of issues that really bother me, like the flip flop on the no meat on Fridays, infallibility of the Pope, the Spanish Inquisition, the way the church handled Galileo and I guess the whole anti-science position, let alone how they handled the pedophile priests, and the church’s concept of predestination for starters.”

“Okay, you have just illustrated one of the major but very common mistakes most seekers make, you and they have a very blurred concept of what a life Path should be and what you have been following as a Path.”

“For example Greg, you stated that you feel you have been using Christianity as your Path, but your above so called Path issues don’t really have anything to do with Christianity (Jesus Christ’s teaching)………what you have listed above is examples of a church’s doctrine (what in a more general case is called commentary, they are 3D or human opinions of divine lessons, and therefore can be humanly fallible or blurred by 3D word labels). Since you referenced the Pope and the Spanish Inquisition, I
assume you were brought up as a Roman Catholic?”

“Well, yes I am a Roman Catholic, well mostly, like I said there are some things that I don’t follow because they don’t seem right, but it’s not just a Roman Catholic issue. Other
Christian based institutions have similar issues, for example here in New England, it was the Protestant ministers with the Salem witch trials and Protestants were behind the persecution of Anne Hutchinson. I think you could find many of the same type of issues with other Christian based religions and even other non-Christian institutions.”

“Yes Greg, it’s true that there are those problems, but the good news is what you don’t like about your current so called Path isn’t the Christian part of it!…….As you said, the problems you see there, can be also seen in other Christian and non-Christian religions/institutions/Paths.”

“You see Greg, like most people, your fuzzy use of 3D labels/words, blurs the divine part of what you are saying. Christianity has not been your Path. The Path you were trying to use and had issues with was the human institution of Roman Catholicism and as you pointed out many of these issues plague all Paths controlled by human institutions, churches, religions or philosophies.”

“Okay sir, but to be honest you have lost me, are you saying my Christian beliefs are right, but not my being a Roman Catholic; and even all Protestant churches and all other religious churches/institutions would be wrong to follow?”

“Yes and no, Greg it will make more sense if we start at the beginning. First we have to establish some common vocabulary, so we can take some of the fuzziness out of our having to use 3D word labels.”

“First let’s agree on a definition of what is meant by a Path for a Life philosophy or for a Religion.”

“That sounds good sir, since I’m totally confused with my current understanding and I am seeking a Life Philosophy, which I’m guessing is what you are calling a Path, could you please explain what you mean by a Path?”

And so my new guide gave me the following lesson: a life Path contains four basic parts.

The first part is one’s metaphysical belief; in general there are five types of metaphysical beliefs.

The first type of metaphysical belief is Theism, the belief there is one supreme God that governs and judges the universe. Theism is usually a monotheistic religion, with a supreme God that ranges from a judging and punishing Old Testament type God to a judging but loving New Testament type God.

The second type of metaphysical belief is Deism, the belief in a divine presence, but it is not a judging or punishing force/ presence, but more of a supportive and caring presence. This presence will range from an almost agnostic passive divine/spiritual presence to a much more active and reachable divine/spiritual presence.

The third type of metaphysical belief is that while the 3D and non-3D universe is dualistic, there is also a divine state of non-dualistic oneness.

The fourth type of metaphysical belief is an agnostic belief system. There may or may not be a God or divine presence, but even if there is a God or divine presence it doesn’t actively control, govern or judge a person’s life or their morality.

The fifth type of metaphysical belief is atheist based philosophies, that don’t believe there is any divine part or force in the universe.

After my new guide presented the above, I responded, “okay, using the above categories or as you put it, the above word labels, I guess you would say I have been a Theist. As a
Christian, I have believed in a judging but also loving and literally, a New Testament type God.  So the first part of my path is a Christian Theist metaphysical philosophy, right?”

His response was the now getting very familiar, “well, yes and no Greg. It was your metaphysical belief as a Roman Catholic, but now you have to re-examine that belief in view of what you are calling your first lesson. Can God be both all loving and act as your divine judge if he is not all knowing???”

My thought response to this was, here we go again; one step forward followed by the feeling I have now gone two steps backwards. My verbal response; “ I guess not, I can see where a loving and most wise, but not all knowing God wouldn’t act as a judge, there could be absolutely no error in the judgment that sent souls either to heaven or hell, but I do believe in a loving God and the Divine trinity; the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

I guess I could solve this dilemma, by adjusting my first lesson, from ‘while God is all Loving, he is not all powerful or all knowing’ to ‘God is both all Loving and all Knowing but still not all powerful’, but that just doesn’t feel as right.

And it would create an even bigger problem for me as it would bring back into the picture my other big dilemma with an ALL loving God that is also ALL knowing… predestination.

While an all Knowing God would solve the God’s right to judge issue, as an ALL Knowing God would now be infallible and wouldn’t make mistakes in assigning souls to heaven or hell.  But an ALL Knowing God brings back into the mix the moral dilemma of predestination, something I definitely don’t feel is right…….Unless you have an equally ‘magical’ answer for the predestination quandary???”

“Sorry Greg, but I can’t pull a rabbit out the hat for resolving the moral dilemma of having a belief in predestination…….But there is another solution, first what makes one a Christian, is it that God judges you, or is it the belief in the Divine nature of the Holy Trinity???”

This answer I knew, “Well, I would say that by definition what makes one a Christian is the complete belief/faith in the teachings of Jesus Christ and the complete willingness to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ as put forth in the New Testament, right?”

And yet again my new guide responded, “well yes and no, Greg. Yes belief in the divine teachings of Jesus by definition and no, not the unquestioning belief in the non-divine blurred reproduction of those teachings that are in a book written by humans; that is called the New Testament (or the Old Testament for that matter). It is wrong to worship the book, which is just the creation of fallible men, the human written book is what is called in philosophical studies; ‘human commentary on a divine subject’, and therefore is not in itself divine. ”

“Wow sir, that statement would upset a lot of Christians.  There are many sects that believe and follow a literal interpretation of the bible.”

“Well Greg, maybe that’s the best way they know how to practice their path, and within limits one could say a blurred path is better than no path.”

That statement brought to my mind one of my own personal rules. You might have heard of the saying, ‘better the imperfect plan the day before the battle than waiting to develop a perfect plan the day after you already had to fight the battle.’

I responded to my new guide, “okay, I guess I can see your point, popes and whoever wrote the first bible and all the translators since are just human and make human errors with the word ‘labels’.  I know there are some conflicting parts in the bibles (for example in the Old Testament the number of animals Noah brought on the ark is recounted differently in two of the passages), but are you saying that since the Christian doctrine has been blurred it is not a true path??? …I hope not as the Holy Trinity feels right to me. Are there any un-blurred paths???”

Yet, again my guide responded; “well Greg, yes and no. Yes one can have an un-blurred path, that is un-blurred to their level of awareness. And no there is no un-blurred path that I’m aware of……. That is written in a book!!!!…… you see once you try to put things in a book you become constrained to using 3D based human words in trying to describe divine or non-3D concepts/knowledge. It is even worse than a physicist trying to just use words for explaining and using the laws of science, no equations or numbers, just words.”

I realized that historically he had a point, in my studying I had discovered the curious point that many of the founders of religions and life path philosophies hadn’t written down their teachings, nor even allowed their followers to write them down while the founders were still alive .

I assume the reader realizes that Jesus didn’t write the New Testament.  Jesus never wrote any of his teachings, nor did he have any of his apostles write them while he was ‘alive’?…..the same with Buddha…..the same thing with the founders of
Hinduism and Taoism….. also with Pythagoras, when it came to his  religious and philosophical belief system; though Pythagoras obviously could have written his religious and philosophical belief system in a book, since Pythagoras did write and publish his math work…… nor did the Druids write down any of their beliefs and I could go on to other widely followed paths including the Koran not being written until after Muhammad died and the Old Testament wasn’t written down for over a thousand years after Abraham and Moses died.

Meanwhile my guide continued, “the teachings are divine not the books, and even if you feel they were divinely inspired or guided, you still have the problem of trying to use human 3D words to explain non-3D/divine concepts. So if you feel a resonance in the Christian metaphysical belief of the Holy Trinity, then follow the underlying concept that feels right, not the human written book, with all its 3D limited word labels.”

My guide continued, “While the teachings of Jesus would be an un-blurred Path, the problem is we don’t have direct clear access to his teachings.

Nor could we ever get direct and clear access of his teachings in a book or through human words, but you can have direct access through life’s 3D and non-3D experiences, if you first work to increase your spiritual awareness and then use it consciously, to understand the 3D and non-3D experiences in life.

You can’t learn charity and love through words, but you can learn it through the living a life with love, a life full of the experience of giving and receiving with a charitable heart. ”

“So Greg if you feel an inner truth in Jesus’ teaching of the Divine nature of the Holy Trinity and God is all Loving, but God is not all powerful and not all knowing, then you can still be a Christian in you metaphysical beliefs.  But you can’t accurately say you are a Roman Catholic, because that institution has a different set of metaphysical beliefs (for example that God is all knowing and all powerful…..)”

So I decided that I did accept intellectually and in my heart with complete faith, the divine nature of Jesus’ teachings, as I feel them to be true in my soul, the divine nature of the Holy Trinity, and an all loving God that is not all knowing or all powerful but is the most knowing and most powerful (there are other facets of my metaphysical Christian beliefs but that’s a story for another day).

My response to my guide;  “So the first part of my path is my metaphysical belief, I’m a Christian,…….so is that the right choice for a metaphysical belief????”

And yet again his response started with, “well Greg……yes and no…. (aaagh, I’m getting to hate those words, they just seem to say, one step forward and two steps backwards grasshopper…… or I guess it’s one hop forward and two hops backwards?) …… Yes Greg, in that it seems that it was the right choice for you, but no in that it’s not necessarily the right choice for other seekers. Remember there are many true paths that will get one to full awareness or enlightenment or divine grace,  even when one just looks at the paths that are guided by POTEGP.

In POTEGP alone you would have eight different paths, with metaphysical belief systems that range from deism to atheism, they are all true paths and each will be right for some seekers.

But for you it was a big and right first step in consciously choosing and understanding a Path that you can use to guide you on your journey to greater Awareness…..increased Spirituality ……development of Free-will.”

So that was my first step in becoming a Christian Buddhist Druid in a virtual village using a Hindu stage of life vehicle …..the discussion of the other parts of a path…..
to be continued later…