Perspective

Paulo: Truth is ever revealing, ever unfolding, ever constant, alive and growing. It's therefore virtually impossible to get a fix on anything for very long, and anything you do manage to get a fix on, instantly is out-dated because of its very crystallization, but you can't blame a guy for trying, especially in these provocative times when War and Peace are so visible as potential realities, and when religion is a part of the political and sociological scene, such as it is in your arenas today.

You can't ask for better than this: to have far-reaching perspective.  

Here's the value of knowing your history, for even though you gain much by your existence in the eternal NOW, you gain perspective when you see the farther view, from whence you've come and thus you can conjecture at length on how you feel you'll go as an advancing race. Historically speaking we are at another revolution.  

I was going to talk about being rebellious as a response to what's going on in your world, but rebellion is not necessarily the same as agitation, even though in the immature, agitation often leads to rebellion. It's as if you must do something, even if it's wrong. And religionists have been doing this for ages. Killing each other in the name of goodness. In a way it's a symbol of the conflict of evolutionary growth, for there is no growth without conflict. That doesn't necessarily mean war, and armaments, but it does imply conflict and resolution. And so these times are a time of mental stimuli. Many thoughts and philosophies are being pushed around and played with, weighed, evaluated, assimilated, discarded, as if a discussion of the many factors involved in the world situation as you perceive it, is going to give you the all-knowing perspective that will allow you to resolve the matter for your own peace of mind, if not for peace on earth.

How does that happen? "Peace on earth." How does it happen over an entire globe? It begins in your own heart when you cease to be in conflict with yourself, when you have aligned yourself appropriately. Appropriate to whom? Aye, there's the rub. Appropriate to the whole. But the whole has to be adequate in order for that kind of commitment to take place, and at this point, we haven't begun to garner the unity that yields the loyalty that transcends the separation that allows the whole to be.  

This is the stress, of course, on why it is that everyone become God-conscious, spirit-led. Even though intellectually it may be perceived different with each individual, in the essence of the spirit, harmony is the 
net result. Even today if you were to all set aside your intellectual differences, we would have peace on earth. But since none of you are willing to set aside your opinions, it's necessary for us to have this growth, this conflict that can resolve values such as we are grappling with in order to have a greater appreciation for what it is we truly aspire for.  

This is a sociology matter. It's the brotherhood of man. It's Human Associations. It's about how people get along. It's about the fruits of the spirit ("And by your fruits you shall be known") even while your philosophies may vary greatly and your theologies be at complete odds. It is said that if you are to have faith, then have it to yourself. In this way you aren't arguing your ideas, you are living your beliefs - and those are values, meanings and ethics - not tenets. If you want to argue tenets, you're talking politics.  

There are no two of you alike, and thus no two of you share precisely the same thoughts. Each of your perceptions has your personal slant. It's not possible for all of you to have the same theology because it is so personal. It is intensely personal, inasmuch as it is the umbilical cord of your identity with reality, however those are perceived. This is why people die for their faith and what they believe in. It has reached the point of that is who they are; they live it so completely.  

If you understand your fellows, you will eventually find their motives and this will lead to an appreciation of their humanity such that your heart will be open to embrace the similarities you share, the values that are at the heart of you each, even as you differ in philosophy and approach.

Education is extremely important, but education is as much of a weapon as is religion. You can browbeat a people with knowledge and only alienate their affections. Knowledge is living and needs to be shared, socialized. Socially speaking it's a long process, and spirit can accelerate the process considerably by allowing for sudden leaps of faith and insight into situations that result in understanding and thus resolve.  

All of us want to know resolve, and have peace of mind. It's difficult enough, ascending these planes of existence, without battling everyone along the way. That we all battle inside ourselves in the good fight of faith is adequate struggle, but as long as humanity prefers to reach for reality outside himself, and project his own conflicts onto others, are we inconvenienced by these revolutions of conflict as we are viewing in your world today.