Reply #82: That's easy

[The Traveler]

What fundamentalists forget is that YOUR relationship (or lack thereof) to the Divine is not THEIR problem. It is yours. By taking that on, they create a lot of futile strife for themselves, and other problems. They also, of course, neglect their own relationship with God when they become focused on the details of yours. This principle is all over the Gospels. (It is my own opinion that Paul should be avoided at all costs. This boy just could not let go of the Old Covenant.)

On the other hand, I am responsible for pursuing my own relationship with the Divinity/God/Whatever label you wish to hang on it, and your opinion of the matter is completely irrelevant to me. It is not that rational discourse is unimportant to me ... it is merely in this matter pointless.

Utimately, one's own experience is more important than debate on this matter. Trying to convert you is worse than useless. If I succeed, you will proceed based on "blind faith" rather than on your own real spiritual experience. Since that experience is almost certain to be different from my own I would actually be doing you harm. You begin to act out my experience rather than acquire your own. Empty ritual and irrationalism is the inevitable end result. Evangelism has in this manner produced a new generation of Pharisees, those who cling to particular beliefs and patterns of ritual with no real basis except blind faith, which usually translates as a response to a nameless inner fear. That result is the antithesis of the Jesus Christ teaching, one objective of which is the liberation of the human heart ... not its subjugation.

If you are interested in test flying your own relationship, as a sort of experiment in the spirit of "let's see what happens", I recommend Matthew Fox's "Sermon on the Mount", which provides a mystical interpretation of the Sermon. The Sermon provides a stunningly clear and simple method of working. But there are other methods of working. Labels seem to be important to people, but seem also to be completely immaterial to the Divine. The principle advantage of the way as taught by Christ is simplicity. It works for me. Others obtain better results with different traditions. Feelings matter here ... one's aesthetic and emotional response to a body of teaching is very important.

Catandenda's Don Juan advised "Find a path with a heart and follow it to the end." I really have little to add to that ... so it is easy and comfortable for me to enjoy people of diverse beliefs and/or non-beliefs.