Who can bear the Light of Heaven? (Screenshot from the anime “The Laws of Eternity”, fittingly enough.)
I don’t really feel I am the right person to expound on Jesus’ words that “blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God”. Â I just briefly want to say that I don’t think it means that people who never have sex will see some guy on a big chair in the sky. Well, I suppose that could happen too, but that is not really the point.
When we step into the spirit world, to stand before the Light, we should be transparent. That is what I think it means. Â We are right now like imperfect crystals, which may let the Light through, but distorted by inner fault lines and shadowed by dark spots. These spots, I would say, are our worldly nature: Â The strong sense of self, of me me me, of wanting things my way.
For instance when we pray for someone, it could be that we don’t like certain things about that person and so we pray for God to change him. Â In that case, we are simply not seeing God. We are not at all pure of heart in such a situation, and our self is not transparent so God / the Light can shine through. When we later meet that person again, we are still the same, and the Light does not shine through us.
We may also pray for someone because they are dear to us, but it may still be an attachment. Someone is ill and we pray to God that God may heal them, because we cannot bear to see them suffer, nor can we bear to part with them. But the reason for our request is still “my will be done, not thine, O God”. Although the Light shines through us, there is a faultline within the crystal of our self, so that the Light is diverted. We may feel exceedingly holy in such a case, and I am not saying we are doing anything wrong as such. Â But it is still about me.
When someone is pure of heart, the difference between my will and God’s falls away, at least for a brief moment. Â The self becomes transparent, and there is no subject or object. There is no “God, give me this”, “God, do this for me”. Â There is simply a taking part in the love that God has for His creatures.
But who is capable of this? Â Who has become so pure of heart that the self has become transparent? To even experience this for a brief moment can change a life forever. But who can live a life like that, day by day? Who can bear such brightness? Â I sure can’t, at the present time.
Questions about transgression. What exactly is transgression or sin?
Pretty much everyone would agree murder, rape and theft are wrong.
What about the gray areas in morality – where there are no solid answers? How do I find answers on that?
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, unless you are a masochist?
There is some more depth to this than is obvious. For instance, if you really really love grilled cheese, you might thing you should serve grilled cheese to everyone, in accordance with the Golden Rule. But another interpretation is that, if you happen to know what they really really like, you would serve that instead, because that is what you would want them to do to you. But overall, it is a very handy ethical guideline. In any case, what matters most is that we have a genuine interest in doing the right thing, rather than trying to stretch and bend the rules as far as possible. That’s what I think.
There are plenty of controversial areas. Like watching porn and pirating music.
How do you get solid answers on a topic like that?
Still the Golden Rule. As a former software developer, I have pretty clear opinions on when and to what extent it is OK to copy intellectual property, but I suppose you also have created some things in your life. I have also seen through the years how others react to having their work copied, but the Golden Rule gives a pretty good starting point.
As for porn, if you are in an intimate relationship, you may consider how you would feel if the other person got obsessed with the imagery of a stranger. Or you could just ask how they felt about it, I suppose.
Obviously those who adhere to a particular religion will usually have a number of guidelines, but basically you can make it very far with just the Golden Rule.
Not everyone that watches it, is obsessed with porn and many watch it with their partners. And what if they are single?
Seriously, I’ve looked and asked around about porn and I was not able to find a solid answer on it. Different studies, different people and experts all had different opinions.
Somehow I doubt many of those experts would like random strangers watch them having sex. Thus by the Golden Rule they would be obliged to not recommend doing it to others.
It so happens that I generally don’t look at others in ways I don’t let others look at me, either.
This becomes slightly more subtle when one comes to artistic depictions or computer graphics rather than photography. The Golden Rule does not really say anything meaningful about that, but of course in my case I happen to have further guidance, which may not apply to you.
But I would say that as far as regards pornography involving real people, unless you have on extremely good authority that they like being exposed in that manner, it would be ethically challenged to watch them, regardless of your particular religion. (And I generally don’t think porn sites are reliable information about the feelings of their sex workers. Personal blogs of exhibitionists, on the other hand, probably are.)
In short, I think particular religions’ restrictions, if any, only apply after we have already filtered for fairness, which is what the Golden Rule does. It is just plain Not Fair to have one rule for ourselves and another for our sex object.
If they didn’t want people watching them having sex they wouldn’t be into porn…
You can’t be serious. In the western world, most porn models just need the money bad enough to swallow their pride. Kind of like prostitution, but less physical. In the developing world and eastern Europe, they are quite likely to be literal slaves of criminal organizations.
Of course there are some exhibitionists having their own small websites and such, but I think I already covered that. Otherwise, we can pretty much assume that they were lured by the hope of getting rich quick. This rarely happens, of course. The profit goes elsewhere, frequently into criminal cartels of various stripes.
I’m not sure how much exploitation there is in the sex industry.
It can be pretty hard to get data on that.
I guess you are right.
The list gray areas goes on
– Eating meat
– Drinking alcohol
and so on…
I don’t want to pick apart every single part of my life, and think through whether what I’ve done is ethical or not. That sort of introspection would be quite exhausting. Is there any other approach I can take?
I’m trying to regain my faith in God, but I still have my doubts. What can I do to make these doubts go away?
I think it is not so hard to understand what to do if you think of it this way: We all want to be happy and free from suffering. So we should first make sure we don’t cause suffering to others unless it is absolutely necessary. And then we should look for opportunities to make others happy. This can be in our work – most people have a job that benefits other people somehow – or it can be at home with family, for you who have that, or together with friends. There is no need to do anything grand, just think frequently of how to make life a little lighter for others, and we will find ourselves in tune with Heaven soon enough.
One lesson of Christianity is that God may die, but He won’t stay dead. You can find Him again, but He has changed. When we grow up, if our God does not grow up with us, then it may be necessary that He “dies” so we can meet Him again in another shape later. God can take many shapes, depending on who He is looking for.
One thing is certain, we cannot be envious and bear grudges and such dark thoughts and at the same time move closer to God. God is Light, and there is no darkness in Him. So when we seek to radiate love and hope and courage, to share happiness with others, we are more in tune with Heaven. Even if we don’t follow the tenets of any one religion at that time, we place ourselves in a position where Heaven or God or the Light can get close to us. So a light-hearted, optimistic mind and goodwill for other people is something anyone can do, and then the Light will draw close to them.
Losing your religion needs not be the end of the story. The prodigal son that Jesus told of came home but he had lost his relationship to God – “I am not worthy to be called your son any longer.” But his Father had not lost his relationship to him. So even if you have lost your faith in God, that does not necessarily mean that God has lost faith in you.
That no-self site shook me a little.