Working on the Ego & Ego Death chapter today, starting just from notes, not even an outline. Most of my recent work up till now has been reviewing/editing existing chapters to reload my brain splines. So I'm shifting gears. I haven't thought about ego in a long time. I need to come at this by sitting on a porch somewhere overdoing it with a joint for several hours.

Thankfully I do have some notes from previous such sessions. #ScriptureWriting #Ego #EgoDeath

The central thesis in my scripture is that trauma = sin. Sin is not necessarily something you *do* but something that happens to you.

Both sin and trauma:

1. Have consequences.
2. Separate us from god, transcendence, nature.
3. Separate us from each other.
4. Block progress.
5. Cause or greatly risk harm to someone else or ourselves.
6. Limit free agency.
7. Keep us from “coming home.”
8. Prevent blessings and happiness.
9. Block us from the free-flowing vibe of the Spirit.
10. Self-perpetuate.
11. Are passed down from generation to generation.

The only definition of sin that doesn't parallel with trauma is that "Sin is anything that goes against God's commands."

If we can prevent/heal trauma, we can prevent/heal sin.

#ScriptureWriting #exmo #exmormon #philosophy #religion #theology #SecularSpirituality #SpeculativeTheology

Free agency isn't a gift. You have to work for it. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something.

#ScriptureWriting #exmo #exmormon #philosophy #religion

There's a concept I don't think will fit into the flow of this book. I wanted it to, but I'll leave it here.

Hypothesis: The biggest reason a conscious being hates pain is because it draws attention away from that which we'd rather be paying attention to.

There were a lot of areas within that I wanted to explore, but here's a thought: What if we were able to have multiple focuses of attention? And when in pain, pain only had to be one of those? Would pain then really be so painful?

#ScriptureWriting

god dam = mad ego

#ScriptureWriting #philosophy #theology #religion #enlightenment

Ego death = A god, thee

#ScriptureWriting #theology #religion #philosophy #enlightenment

Be in the moment, but not of the moment.

#ScriptureWriting #exmo #exmormon #theology #philosophy #religion

God was asleep. Then you woke up. Now god is awake.

#ScriptureWriting #Philosophy #Theology #religion

Perhaps one day god said to godself, "Am I omnipotent? Can I do all things? Can I create a rock I cannot lift? Am I so powerful that I could best even myself?"

On that day, god decided to test this idea, and split godself into an illion separate creatures with separate awarenesses, and placed them all in a limited realm where they each could try to best the other in a 22 billion-year-old contest of wills.

Reality is god trying to outdo godself.

#ScriptureWriting #Philosophy

Going to try to get started on #ScriptureWriting today, but a flare of seemingly unending IBS plus some frustrating bad news is keeping me distracted. It's hard to write about #SecularSpirituality with a bad attitude.

There are, in fact, some consistencies in some spiritual experiences. For instance, many folks across many cultures experience transcendence of feeling at one with everything or with all beings. This is either psychological or reflects evidence of a real spiritual realm, BUT there are inconsistencies in the details, for instance, which god or force had anything to do with it. That’s where you’ll find me being skeptical of claims about what it all means. #SecularSpirituality #ScriptureWriting

Did a couple of hours of #ScriptureWriting today, editing the chapters on Chaos & Evolution, Death & Trauma. It took me about two weeks to load the splines (get my brain in gear) for this project again, but I seem to be in the flow and it's making sense to me again. Adding the parable to help prep the reader for a bunch of scientific ideas did wonders for softening the Chaos & Evolution chapter. Not sure when I'll get to writing new chapters. I'm about 2/3rds through the book. Very close, but I really do need to review what I've already written before diving into new content.

I dislike these sentiments I see that people are generally "stupid." No, people are generally scared. And they've bought into messages their whole lives that they're stupid. So the wall goes up immediately if they thing something is going to be too hard. In part because if they TRY to understand, and fail, it will reinforce their bad feelings about themselves. It's easier to put up a front of performative stupidity (which is under their control) to avoid vulnerability.

I believe in the ability of most people to grasp difficult concepts if they can just give themselves a chance. If we want to build a better world, we need to have more patience and faith in one another. #ScriptureWriting

3/3

I've struggled to get back into #ScriptureWriting since my dad died, perhaps because he was one of my motivators to write it. But the last week or two I've been sitting with it a couple of times a week trying to get back into it. I became discouraged with Chapter 3, where I get into a lot of hard science (creation of the universe, molecular chemistry, and biogenesis type stuff). Even my own eyes were glazing over reading it. I think I've fixed that now by introducing the content with a parable, to help sum up what I'm going for metaphorically first, so people have a reason to concentrate on the hard parts. Now the science is just explaining that parable, and I hope it's more accessible. I also prefaced it by saying that I'm offering both milk and meat, and if the reader only understands the milk, then that's ok too.

I did a little #ScriptureWriting today, not much, just reading and making line edits to existing chapters. It's fairly hot here #today though not as hot as it's going to get later this year.

For the past several years, I read through the Bible over the course of the year. I vary the readings and how I respond. In 2022 I read most but not all of the Hebrew Scriptures and New Testament and journaled as I went. Often I summarized but at times responded with thoughts, questions, and insights. Writing has added so much to my study of Scripture this year. I’ll continue that into 2023. #scripture #scripturewriting #spiritualformation #spiritualdisciplines

Today in #ScriptureWriting, I transitioned from my thoughts on Awareness into the concept of the Ego and Ego Death ("A god, thee!"). I think this chapter is going to need to be split into two.

I think this is pretty cool because my experience of pantheism is closely connected to my several rounds of ego death. That is, the more my ego dies, the more I can allow in other concepts of myself and others, which opens me to feeling like god as well as feeling like you are god.

"A god, thee," indeed.

#ScriptureWriting

#ScriptureWriting

Been working on the Awareness & Self chapter this week. It's coming along. It's going slowly, but these are difficult concepts to put into words. #AmWriting

I’ve been having yearnings to write fiction again but I’m not done with my #ScriptureWriting project and my life has gotten unexpectedly busy.