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Aswad -> RE: Spirituality and BDSM (9/7/2007 5:34:05 AM)
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ORIGINAL: ChainsandFreedom
I believe it was similar sentiments [...]
Not a similar sentiment, but something that comes from a similar place.
Consider for a moment the state. It is a noncorporeal entity, to which people sacrifice a substantial portion of their earthly goods. They turn to it for help, protection, and such. People abide by its tenets and laws (sometimes only when they think someone might be looking, much as with religions), and take pride in being one of its people. They use its priests (beurocrats and politicians) to address this entity, and rely on its messengers and angels (law enforcement, armed forces, firefighters, health care, etc.).
And, in the end, they are proud and willing to fight and die for this "god" of theirs.
Most humans have a need for authority in their lives; others have a need for spirituality. I think both are valid ways to be human, but they have different roles. The problem arises when those who are supposed to be shepherds, instead become wolves, and prey upon the flock, turning them to "evil" ends. It is no accident that sheep are a prominent biblical symbol, and that analogy means exactly the same as it does in modern society.
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Good luck with your revalation. It certainly seems like it will be interesting and worthwhile once you have formalized and internalized it. The religious exstacy and middle ground between religion and humanism you speak of certainly seems elusive through the course of history.
It has indeed been elusive. Most religions are either for the spiritual person, or for the sheeple. Paul turned a religion that bridged this gap into a religion for the sheeple. I've turned it around, into what I believe to be closer to the original intent: a religion for both sheeple and spiritual people, which values both, and fullfils the needs of both.
What remains to be done is no less than a reinterpretation of every text pertaining to the Abrahamic traditions, in light of this revelation, excising some texts in their entirety, while retaining a few unchanged, and adding commentary and/or redactions to the rest. This includes the apocryphal texts, such as the Gnostic gospels. Going to take some time, needless to say. And there is the matter of integrating advances that the modern era has provided us with, including how cognitive sciences provide us with better ways to fill certain social functions, and the fact that a certain flavour of BDSM can- done in the right manner- provide a framework for offering each person their own path to the extent of spiritual experience they are able to grasp, along with meeting very commonly neglected human needs that have not been met since our "primitive" days.
Internalization is a minor work, in comparison, and will come with living the path. What remains to be done, apart from those two things, is to establish a new Covenant with G*d, as I have come to see the old Covenants as having been broken on our side, or at the very least not appropriate as a foundation. How to do that, is an intriguing question, especially for one who admits the possibility of miracles, and thus the possibility that the mythology surrounding the establishment of the old Covenants may be more literal than commonly held. I'm not holding my breath on any burning bushes, however. [;)]
Note, by the way, that I am not equating submissives and slaves with sheeple. Rather, I am saying that these two axes exist independently of each other, and that this religion must meet the human and spiritual needs of all configurations along both axes, in a naturalist and spiritualist synthesis of what I hope constitutes an enlightened approach.
Health,
al-Aswad.
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