Theo-diversity and Humane Values
In Realization man ascends into a luminous vision of perfection, while in Revelation he has to accede to imperatives. Realization is a caress of the heart to the world in the inner sky of consciousness, in the cidakasa (Yadetad hridayam mama tadastu hridayam tava). There are no pagans, no infidels in Sadhana or Realization. While in Revelation Man is in the image of God, in Realization gods are in the image of Man.
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Reincarnation in Greek and Roman Civilizations. Exploratory Studies in Reincarnation
Reincarnation is sometimes thought of as a belief system peculiar to eastern religious traditions like Hinduism and Buddhism. The fact, however, is that the principle of reincarnation has enjoyed global intellectual appeal and widespread mass acceptance throughout most of known human history.
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Vedic Gods: One God: Many Gods: Advaita – Part I
The Hindus do not call their Gods either ‘One’ or ‘Many’. According to them, what they worship is One Reality, Ekam Sat, which is differently named. This Reality is everywhere, in everything, in everything. It is One and Many at the same time and it also transcends them both. Everything is an expression, a play, an image, an echo of this Reality.
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Bonding to the Land: A Pagan view of Ecology
In deep ecology, bonding to the land is the first condition for an ecologically sane society. “The first thing to do is to choose a sacred place and live in it.” So advised Pawnee tribe elder, Tahirussawichi, to writer Dolores LaChapelle. The Pagan pact with the land can be regarded as what is today called bioregionalism. Relation to a place perceived as sacred is not, however, possession of place; in fact, such relationship impedes the drive to possess. Native Americans frequently insist that they belong to the land, the land does not belong to them.
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The Doctrine of a Dead Man – A Pagan View of Christianity
Gnostics saw in the Jewish messiah—the Zaddikite figure that later morphed into the Christian redeemer, Jesus Christ—a counterfeit revealer and a bogus model of humanity. His claim to exclusivity as the “only-begotten Son of God” was simply a lie intended to set up an authority that could not be challenged by mere mortals. In the tradition of the Mysteries, revealers appear periodically through the ages to enlighten and teach.
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The Victim-Perpetrator Bond: The Religious Roots of Genocide – Part II
What abuse was inflicted upon Europeans prior to the fifteenth century that produced in them a drive for domination by violence, provided righteous justification for that violence, and led them to commit genocide and ecocide on a global scale? What happened in ancient Europe before Europeans went forth to conquer, convert and colonize the New World?
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The Redeemer Complex: The Religious Roots of Genocide – Part I
Humans may commit violence for many reasons, they may seek to oppress and dominate others for a variety of causes, but when domination by violent force, both physical and psychological, is infused with righteousness and underwritten by divine authority, violence takes on another dimension. It becomes inhuman and deviant.
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The Christian Destruction of Pagan Heritage
This account by Catherine Nixey tells us about the destruction of the pagan city of Palmyra in modern day Syria by fanatic Christians. It is an excerpt from the famous work 'The Darkening Age' by Catherine Nixey in which she tells how systematically, brutally and almost completely, Christianity destroyed the pagan temples, heritage and the very knowledge traditions.
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